The Will of the Queen
by kickassdani
Summary: AU Luffy has eaten the Will Will Fruit, it allows her to both read and control the mind of her target/s, because of this Luffy and her brothers are held hostage by the Marines. Set at the Marineford Arc. Warning OOC. Fem!Luffy is SMART due to her Devil Fruit ability. Alive Ace and Sabo. Pairing MarcoLuffy
1. The Queen

**Will of the Queen**

**Inspired by '****Pokepika's Haunt****' fan-fiction 'The Queen '. I was devastated when I read that they wouldn't anymore of the story past the first chapter so I decided to do my own take of it. This is my first ever fan-fic so if you can give me reviews that would be awesome.**

_**Summary: Monkey D. Luffy has eaten the Will Will Fruit, it allows her to both read and control the mind of her target/s. Further information about her fruit will be given in the story. Set at the Marineford Arc. Warning OOC. Fem!Luffy is SMART due to her Devil Fruit ability. Alive Ace and Sabo. Pairing MarcoLuffy**_

**Disclaimer: I don't Own One Piece. If I did Ace and Sabo would be alive and the three siblings would have all sailed out together.**

In the tall fortress-like building, behind the execution platform stood three people. In the centre was a young girl who looked no older than seventeen. She had long black hair that reached to her waist and matching luminous black eyes that reflected the scene below the balcony where she stood, leaning on the rail. She wore a pure white trouser suit with a black and red striped shirt, and on her shoulders was a larger oversized marine coat, with the Kanji of 'Absolute Justice '. The most distinguishable feature on her face was the small cut under her left eye and the complete lack of emotions that was displayed on her face and the straw hat that hung from a string that rested on her back. She was Monkey D. Luffy, Rear Admiral and Feet Admiral Sengoku's successor.

The men who stood behind her were her two older brothers.

On her right stood a tall man in his early twenties, he had wavy hair and a smattering of childish freckles on his cheeks. His pale yellow shirt was open showing a define set of abs on his stomach and black cargo shorts were accompanied by similar cargo boots. The bright orange cowboy that he wore on his head and the bright red bead around his neck contrasted greatly with the subdued colours of the rest of his clothes. He was 'Fire Fist' Portgas D. Ace, former captain of the Spade Pirates and had a bounty of 550 million Bellis.

On her left was another man with short blonde hair. Similar to his companion on his right he too displayed an impressive set of muscles on his chest that could be seen through his open long blue coat with only a white scarf tied around his neck. He too wore shorts, boot and a hat, the main difference was that he wore a blue top hat with goggles around the base. He was the 'Blue Gentleman' Sabo, former captain of the Top Hat Pirates and had a bounty of 400 million Bellis.

What both men shared in common were the anxious expressions that they had on their faces and tense body language. They watched their younger sister as she examined the execution platform where Whitebeard's fourth Commander, Thatch knelt bloody, bruised and wrapped in chains. They knew that Whitebeard would start a war to get his commander back and they were furious that they were on their enemy's side. Both of them had been famous pirates that had sailed the seas of the New World, but all that had changed when they had received a single note.

'_Surrender to the Marines or we kill your sister'_

They handed themselves to the government without a second thought. They had become tools for the government since they their Devil Fruits had useful abilities. Ace had eater the Fire Fire Fruit and Sabo had eaten the Teleport Teleport Fruit, however no matter have unpleasant their positions were it was nothing compared to their sister's. Luffy had a powerful and dangerous Devil Fruit, and both men cursed its existence and the fact that it had crossed paths with their baby sister five times over and then some for the position it had landed all of them in.

It was by far one of the most despicable and cruel Devil Fruits in known existence, but neither of the brothers blamed their sister for having eaten it. It was an accident, and no one could be blamed for it. They did blame their grandfather and the selfish Marines that he worked for. Their grandfather, Garp, was the kind of man who was unable to keep secrets. Despite their best efforts he had found out about her abilities and had even when he had known how important it was to keep her Devil Fruits abilities a secret he had told his friend Fleet Admiral Sengoku during his usual rants about his grandchildren.

The result had been as they had expected. It was right after Ace and Sabo had sailed off to become pirates that the Marines had come to take a fourteen year old Luffy away to Marineford. After three years of hellish training in Haki and her Devil Fruit abilities with all three Admirals and lessons with Fleet Admiral Sengoku in Strategies, Tactics and Schemes Luffy had risen in the ranks become Read Admiral, though her true purpose was just as a weapon. It was shortly after he had been promoted to Rear Admiral that the Marines had found out about her siblings and had used their bond as a hostage to keep them to heel.

What both brothers _truly _regretted was that the little girl that they had known, who would laugh and smile at the silliest things – including herself had been replaced with a cold and expressionless marine. It was a shock that the hyperactive sibling they had grown-up with had disappeared so completely. At first they had thought the girl in front of them - when they had arrived at Marineford after surrendering – was an imposter. However, after finally being able to calm down and talking they had discovered that due to Luffy's Devil Fruit abilities she had been forced to cut off all outward displays of emotions since it interfered with her control. Also, if she had large amounts of emotion, such as crying which she had done a lot of as a child it would overload her senses and knock her unconscious. Since then the two brothers were forced to pick up on the tiny changes of her facial features to figure out her moods. Though they improved over time, neither was happy that their baby sister was forced to become an outwardly emotionless person, but underneath her cold exterior their sister was still the same and that gave them hope and reassurance.

The brothers were jolted out of their own thoughts and memories when their sister turned from the edge of the balcony to sit on the throne-like chair they stood either side of. In front of it was a Chessboard that looked as if it had been left in the middle of a game. Luffy took off her coat and tossed onto the back of the chair. They looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to view her thoughts with them.

She sighed. "We are going to lose this war. The only way I can think of so stop unnecessary bloodshed is to give Whitebeard back his commander." She sighed again and rested he head against the back of the chair and gazed at the chessboard through half-lidded eyes. "If Sengoku and the rest of Marineford wasn't so filled idiotic pride and arrogance they'd see just has pointless this execution is. Well Akainu certainly wouldn't let a pirate go free once he's caught them"

Sabo looked down at his sister's expressionless face as she talked and ruffled her hair while pressing a kiss to her forehead. Prompted by his elder brother's actions Ace squeezed her hand and gave a reassuring smile. They were able to read the minute changes in her face and body language and they knew that she was anxious and upset. Since they had gotten to know the commander while he had been imprisoned in the dungeons under Marineford.

The fourth Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, Thatch had caught him and handed over, to the Marines by one of Whitebeard former crewmates. Marshal D. Teach, who now went by the alias 'Blackbeard' for the open position as one of the Shichibukai.

"Blackbeard's true goal doesn't end with him gaining his position as Shichibukai, he will turn against the Marines once he has obtained what he wanted." Luffy continued speaking her train of thought. Ace and Sabo listened closely, they knew their sister was a genius and was very rarely wrong in such matters. "What puzzles me is _what_ he wants exactly. It is something that he can only get by joining the marines, but there are so many things that I'm finding it hard to narrow down the list."

Ace looked down at his sister. "Lu, do you think that we will be able to make it through this war alive? I know I'm not smart like you and Sabo but all I can see is us getting killed, either by the Marines who think we've out-lived our usefulness or the Whitebeard pirates who will see us as traitors.

Sabo looked at his younger brother in shock. Ace never voiced his fears. He was the one who always went into a fight without thinking, even if he was out-numbered and out-matched. He hear him asking whether they would live through the oncoming war pissed Sabo off.

"What the hell are you even saying?" He snarled as he grabbed Ace's shirt front and pulled him closer so that their faces were mere inches away. "Our little sister gave up her emotion so that she could survive in this hell hole and protect us. _We_ gave up our lives as pirates so that the goddamn Marines would keep their hands off our baby sister. If we don't protect and look out for each other then who the hell will? _I_ intend to live through this war and return to the sea, what about you?"

Ace was shocked.

Sabo _never_ swore.

He was the politest one of the three. He was known for his calm disposition and gentlemanly way of acting and speaking. There was a reason he was named the 'Blue Gentleman'. He hung his head in shame. He didn't want to admit how scared he was of losing his siblings. Though they weren't blood related they meant the world to him. He had put up a brave face through the last year that he and Sabo had been hostages but the crack in his control were starting to show.

"Sorry" he muttered

Sabo was about to shout again when a quiet voice from below them made the two brothers fight stop instantly.

"Don't worry. I will protect both of you and you will be able to once again sail on the seas a pirates. I promise you this, no matter who or what I have to use I will get you back your freedom"

Luffy once again turned her attention back to the commander who was awaiting his execution and recalled their meeting when she and her two brothers had snuck into the dungeon so that they could talk to the famed commander.

**Flashback**

_The three siblings looked into the cell where a man had been chained to the wall opposite them. The bare light they held illuminated his various wound and bruised body, his hair whish was famous for always being in a pompadour hairstyle hung limply either side of his face. His beard had lost its usual shape and badly need to be trimmed but despite his appearance when he looked up, his gaze was far from broken._

"_Why on earth are there three kids outside my cell in the middle of the night?"_


	2. Meeting the Fourth Commander

**Oh my God! I can't believe this, I posted this up a few hours ago and I already have all these reviews and people following me! THANK YOU! I will keep updating as fast as I can since I was up until 5am planning out the beginning. Also please be patient for the sparks to go off between Marco and Luffy since there will need to be a few more chapters before the two meet start talking.**

**Chapter 2**

**Flashback**

_The three siblings looked into the cell where a man had been chained to the wall opposite them. The bare light they held illuminated his various wound and bruised body, his hair whish was famous for always being in a pompadour hairstyle hung limply either side of his face. His beard had lost its usual shape and badly need to be trimmed but despite his appearance when he looked up, his gaze was far from broken._

"_Why on earth are there three kids outside my cell in the middle of the night?"_

Thatch was shocked. Even though he was chained and beaten up he still had his keen senses that had helped to get him his position as fourth commander on Oyaji's ship. Three brats were watching him with curious expressions, well two of them at least. The girl who looked to be the youngest had a blank face that sent shivers down the commander's spine.

'_What could have happened a child that had caused them to have such a cold expression?' _He wondered. _'It's as if she has seen the horrors of the world and didn't make it back in one piece.'_

He continued to examine the three strange brats in front of his cell. The two boys wore casual clothes that no Marine would be caught dead in and held a similar pirating air about them that his siblings on the Moby Dick had. He looked again at the girl and noted that she wore the uniform of the higher ranks of Marines - the personalized suit and the formal Marine coat of 'Absolute Justice'

'_What strange brats. Two look like pirates and the third is a little girl wearing a high ranking uniform. What do they want with me and not to mention how did they get in here? We're underneath Marineford HQ, one of the safest places on the Grand Line.'_

The longer he stared at the two boys the more they seemed familiar. Thatch was wracking his brain as to why, and the process was giving him a headache. There was _something _about the two that he recognized, had he seen a picture or heard a description about them? He was either an idiot like Marco had always claimed he was or the stupid Marines had hit him over the head a dozen too many times. Thatch paused at the thought of the picture, and slowly his thoughts started to connect.

Picture – Poster – Wanted Poster – Pirate Wanted Poster!

"AH! You're the Blue Gentleman Sabo and Fire Fist Ace! You're the Supernovas that had been making a fuss in the New World. Wait. That was a year ago or so, the two rookies that had the biggest bounties suddenly disappeared without a trace. I mean it's not that unusual considering the New World but you had made regular appearances in the New World. Why are you brats here in Marineford?"

The newly identified Sabo walked until he stood directly in front of the cell, he took off his Top Hat and bowed low to the chained commander. Ace just gave his usual cocky smile and remained silent. He was perfectly happy in letting Sabo do the talking since he had no intention of getting friendly with stranger outside his siblings and his former crew. Also he wasn't about to move away from Luffy who he knew was feeling conflicted about talking to the man and the conversation she planned to have with him.

"It is as you have said Mr. Fourth commander, my younger brother and I are both pirates of reputation and high bounties. Since we were once part of the pirating world we feel obligated to see what kind of person is being sent to their death. Morbid I know, but this is the only kind of contact that we will get so long as the Marines hold our leash."

Thatch was shocked. _'The Blue Gentleman and Fire Fist were brothers!' _More questions piled on in his head that main one being what the blonde boy had meant when he said _"So long as the Marines hold our leash." _

'_What could the Marines possibly have that two Supernovas had agreed to let the Marines who had hunted them down to control them?' _

Finally failing in trying to work out the answer, Thatch decided to straight out ask the boy in front of him. Usually he would have tried to work it out a little longer but his head hurt too much, both from his beating and from thinking too much.

"What do you mean brat, by the last part. And you two are brothers! Well that's a surprise you look nothing alike."

Sabo smiled and sat cross-legged on the floor. "Yes we are brothers, but we kept our connection secret for various reasons. Well, thinking about it, there really isn't any point to keeping a family I'm proud of a secret so please allow me to introduce my little sister." Sabo twisted the upper half of his body so that it half faced the two behind him, with his hand out palm up he pointed to the girl in the marine uniform. "This is Rear Admiral Monkey D. Luffy, Granddaughter of Monkey D. Garp and mine and Ace's little sister Also Fleet Admiral Sengoku's successor.

Thatch could do nothing but gape. _'Garp. As in 'Garp the Fist' the hero who caught the former Pirate King Gold Roger? What was with these brats? Wait if Garp was her grandfather that meant that he was also the grandfather of the two pirate brats in front of him'. _Thatch shookhis head in an attempt to clear away the wreckage his brain was in after all the revelations that had been so casually handed to him, but only succeeded in making his headache worse.

Sabo laughed quietly as he watch the commanded failing to gather his thoughts together but was brought up short when he remembered the real reason the three siblings were down in the dungeon talking to this pirate.

"I apologise for the sudden overload of information and you're probably wondering why I'm telling you this"

Thatch nodded his head, there had to be a reason why three brats; two being pirates and the third a marine would come visit him in the middle of the night.

"To put it quite bluntly," Sabo continued with a smile, "We're being held hostage. Our idiot of a grandfather is a certain type of man. That type, is simple, stupid, and has overly large mouth that couldn't keep a secret no matter what the circumstances are. A man who cannot, and will never, shut up, even if his life, family, even if his career depended on it. Our grandfather has always wanted us to become Marines, and so long as this is achieved he doesn't care about the methods used, even if it means blackmail"

Thatch was confused as the blonde boy, Sabo, explained, he was not so shocked that they were being held hostages. It sounded exactly like something that the Marines would do, in his confusion he looked to the two dark haired siblings. The girl still had a cold expression but the boy had a deep scowl and fury was etched onto every line of his body, what was curious was that the girl, Luffy, he corrected himself, reached out and held the hand of her older brother. Her expression didn't change but the effect on both of her siblings was immediate. Both gained a soft look in their eyes and for the dark haired boy, the fury that had been so evident drained out of his body and he pulled his sister into a tight hug. After watching the two or a few moments Sabo returned to his explanation.

"What our grandfather exposed was not only our connection as siblings but our little sister's Devil Fruit abilities." He sighed and placed his head in his hands. "Luffy had the misfortune of eating a fruit with, what you could say…_rather distasteful abilities_. All three of us have eaten Devil Fruits, Ace the Fire Fire Fruit and myself the Teleport Teleport Fruit, but Luffy's Fruit is dangerous. She ate the Will Will Fruit which allows her to read the minds of her targets and control them. What makes her ability so special though is that even if she is knocked unconscious or dies, not that we'll ever let anyone –" Sabo added hastily after getting a death glare from his younger brother who had let go of his sister but still held her hand, "her power remains. For example, if she ordered her target to kill someone, the order is buried so deep into the target's mind that it becomes subconscious and they will kill the specified person without them even realising it. It is truly one of the most despicable fruits in known history."

Sabo took a deep breath and added what was for them, the most painful piece of information. "Shortly after Ace and I set off to sail to become pirates when we were 17, our grandfather spilt the beans about Luffy's Fruit and Marines came to collect her. They told her that if she didn't co-operate that her village be eliminated, the hostage list was added to three years later when they found out that we were siblings. Luffy was told that both of us and our crews would be killed, while Ace and I were sent a letter that contained a single line, '_Surrender to the Marines or we kill your sister'. _Needless to say you can guess our answer since we're all sitting here now, it's been a year since we got that note and all three of us are ready to jump at any chance that comes our way that will let us escape. And that would be you Mr. Fourth Commander.

Thatch had been getting paler as Sabo talked. He had a hundred thoughts going through his head and not one made sense. Such a fruit was truly evil and he pitied the poor marine girl for one; having eaten it and two; having the marines find out about it. But what truly disturbed him was what these three brats had in stall for him. Through their brief exchange he could emphasize with their situation and he was starting to like them for how they had selflessly given up their freedom to keep each other safe.

After a moment pregnant silence Thatch finally spoke. "So just how exactly do you plan on using me to get out of your shitty situation? No offensive meant but none of us are in any position to break out of Marineford and live to tell the tale"

"Well you see…" Sabo began, before he was interrupted.

"Sabo-nii" Luffy spoke for the first time since they had snuck into the dungeon using Sabo's teleportation ability. "Even though you're smarter than Ace I think it would be best if I explained what we plan to do."

Thatch shivered, her voice was as cold as her expression. If it hadn't been for her earlier actions and her brother's explanation Thatch would have been tempted to tell the girl to take her plans and put them somewhere unsavoury.

"Whitebeard plans to start a war with the Marines in order to get you back. I plan to use this as an opportunity for us to escape. I am going to use your position as one of his commanders and the fact that we helped you to escape as a bartering tool to ensure we get a safe passage away from Marneford. After that we will fend for ourselves and will no longer be any concern of yours."

Thatch was shocked by her blunt honesty. She was telling him in no uncertain terms that he was a tool that she planned to use for their escape. He had to admire the girl for her cheek and willingness to use whoever she could. What he was surprised and unwilling happy about was that Oyaji was ready to start a war for his sake. This thought brought him to the realisation that many of his siblings and fellow crew members would get hurt and killed because he was stupid enough to get beaten by Teach. Despite his better judgement he was willing to go along with whatever this girl, Luffy, planned since it was most likely the best chance he had to get free without too many of his family getting killed. Over a moments thinking Thatch came to an overall conclusion, _'Marco was right, I AM an idiot'_.

Luffy read the thoughts that went through the commander's head as she stood in front of the cell. There were too many risks involved for her not to, she desperately wanted her brother to be happy and sailing freely on the sea again. She felt a twinge of guilt when she thought about how slim her changes of living through the oncoming war were. Even if all three of them safely escaped the Marines wouldn't stop at mercilessly hunting her down. She knew too much. She was Sengoku's successor and her defection was a betrayal to the Marines on every level, even if she didn't know all the secrets about the Marines and the Wold Government that she did. She hadn't told her brothers about this when she had explained her plans that she had devised as soon as she had heard that Whitebeard's commander had been captured. She knew that if they found out about how unlikely she would be able to escape alive they would refuse to go along with her strategy and would stay incarcerated in Marineford in order to keep her safe as they could.

To Luffy, this was unacceptable and she was willing to use her own life in order to set her brothers free.

"Alright girlie, I'm in. But I'll warn you now if any harm comes to Oyaji I will _personally_ come after your head. You understand me?"

When Ace heard the threat he strode forward and grabbed the bars with both hands. "Don't _ever_ threaten my sister again." He snarled. "We want to set you free because we don't want a good pirate to be killed because his nakama betrayed him. Teach is scum and we don't want you to suffer anymore because he used you to further his own goals. Any man who betrays their nakama, the ones they had their lives entrusted with, deserves to be killed in the slowest and most painful way possible. Don't you dare think that our sister is like him. Even if you find it hard to believe we want to save as many lives as possible, _including_ yours."

Thatch stared wide-eyed at the youth, _'No Ace' _He thought to himself, '_He isn't just some nameless pirate this fire-top's name is Ace.' _Listening to him Thatch was convinced he could trust these three brats to be able to get him out alive. He couldn't help but idly wonder what the Moby Dick would be like with these three new additions on board, and he smiled at the thought _'It would be a hell load of fun'._

His thoughts were interrupted again when Sabo spoke up. "Ace control your temper. If Luffy wasn't making the guards and the surveillance den den mushi sleep then we would have at least a dozen or so Marines down here, wondering what the noise was."

Ace hung his head after the scolding his brother had given him and walked away from the front of the cell to lean against the opposite wall with his arms crossed over his chest, and scowled at the chained pirate. He wasn't going to apologise, since no-one threatened his family when he was around, but he knew that his siblings would know that he did regret his actions _somewhat_ from his body language.

Luffy sighed. "We need to get going. The guards watching the surveillance monitors will notice the time skip if I keep them asleep any longer." She turned to Sabo who stood up and brushed the dust and dirt from the back of his shorts, before once again facing the fourth commander, and to his great surprise bowed to him.

"I am sorry for using you and your connection to Whitebeard, but I can't think of any other way that we can escape from the Marines. Thank you for agreeing and I promise you that I will do everything in my power in order to keep you alive." She straightened before continuing in her cold voice, "We will be back again in order to discuss the plans that we have for when the war breaks out. We need to have all the details memorized so that there will be more change of us surviving. Good night"

With that she walked back to Ace and held his hand with her right while her left hand was held up to Sabo. With one last grin at the commander Sabo walked up to join his siblings and took the hand his sister had offered him. The moment the two hands came into contact the three disappeared before Thatch's eyes without leaving a trace to show that they had been there.

Thatch looked at the spot where the three siblings had been for several moments before chuckling which led to a full laugh.

'_Oh those three are good,'_ he thought _'I've got to ask Oyaji to recruit them as soon as we all escape, they're too much fun to let go'_ . Thatch only stopped laughing when the guard came down and banged on the bars of his cell, telling him to shut up.

**End Flashback**

Luffy reminisced on the dozen or so meetings that they had had with Thatch after their initial one. They had grown somewhat close, not enough for her to call him a friend but close enough to like him, enough to refer to him by his name at the very least. They had talked about their plans of escape using her predictions and knowledge of both the Marines and how the base was laid out. Thatch had been astounded at her predictions, at how she was able to plan out each phase of the war down to the smallest details, Ace and Sabo had simply shrugged, used to her calculating nature which was the product of long and torturous lessons with all three Admirals and Fleet Admiral Sengoku.

Luffy turned in her chair and checked her Marine coat for the dozen or so apples she had stuffed into the various pockets. They were part of a gamble she planned to use, but whether her scheme would work was unknown, even to her. When her brothers when they had seen her stuffing her coat full of fruit they hadn't questioned her, simply slated it off as her preparing emergency food supplies since her gluttonous appetite had remained the same as it had as a child.

She picked up a single chess piece from the board in front of her and held it up so it was against the horizon that was being steadily beginning to darken with oncoming ships that were allied with Whitebeard.

The piece she held was the Queen. She let the corners of her mouth curl in a small, rare smile and in a low voice said:

"Let the war begin."


	3. On the Battlefield

**Thank you readers for staying with me, for following my story and for your feedback. I do warn you now that I **_**won't**_** be writing about the individual battles that take place during the Marineford Arc. There are three reasons for this: 1. I'm too lazy, 2. It would take too much time and 3. The story would deviate away from the main characters. (**_**Please don't forget that I'm a newcomer to writing**_**). Also I plan to introduce Marco, at least briefly to get the sparks going. Enjoy and please continue to review, I need the support to keep going.**

**Chapter 3**

Luffy stared at the battlefield as it progressed and watched as more lives were lost. She wanted to stop the killing, to take over the minds of the Marines and make them surrender but she knew that if she did that then the strength that she would need for when she and her siblings escaped would have already been used up. Luffy knew she was strong, but she knew that couldn't stop an army _and_ control the strong minds of the Admirals. She hated feeling so powerless. To simply wait for the correct time, and silently cursed, the war and the Marines for making her feel like this.

She didn't blame her grandfather, she knew what kind of man he was and that he _did_ feel guilty for making his grandchildren hostages to the Marines. Her brothers didn't believe her since their grandfather had neither apologized nor looked the least bit sorry for his actions, but as Luffy had gradually cut off all her outward displays of emotions and muted her inner emotions she had gotten better a reading body language, it also helped that she had read her grandfathers mind and saw just how much he missed her old personality from when she was a child. But the past couldn't be changed.

She was jolted out of her inner musings when she saw that all three of the Admirals had join the battle. _'Finally!'_ She thought. _'With those three monsters gone, the execution platform only has Sengoku,'_ who was standing on the platform next to Thatch, _'guarding it. We can finally make our move.'_

She stood up and placed her coat onto her shoulders and fixed it in place. She turned to her brothers and gave them a sharp nod. It was time to set their plan into action. She placed her straw hat on her head and tilted it so it shadowed her eyes, both her brothers were adjusting their own hats so that they were secure, Sabo ran to grab his metal staff which had rested against the wall, since it was his favourite weapon. When they were ready, they both nodded at her.

Ace created a dozen small fireballs in his hands which Sabo then quickly swiped his hand over, teleporting them to the frame of the execution platform; setting it alight. All three watched with anticipation as the blaze grew while the Marines had no idea what was happening behind them. Sengoku was the first to notice, when he felt the heat of the flames underneath him and quickly barked out orders for the flames to be dowsed.

This was the distraction they needed, while Sengoku was looking elsewhere, Sabo teleported behind Thatch and unlocked the chains with a spare key that Luffy had ordered one of the guards to give her several days previously. Of course she had made them forget the whole incident and the Marine had continued his day with no idea of what he had done. Once Thatch was free from the chains Sabo was to then teleport Thatch to the base of the wall where he would both Thatch and his siblings across it. Luffy had told all of them that once they were on the other side of the wall, their first priority was to make it to Whitebeard, _without being noticed_. If they were seen then all the Marines would focus on finishing the execution of not only Thatch but the traitors who had helped him escape.

Meanwhile Ace and Luffy vaulted over the edge of the balcony and crept towards the wall. Luffy spread out her power gently touching the minds of the Marines around them and encouraged them to ignore her and Ace sneaking by. This skill used less power than simply ordering the Marines to ignore them. The soldiers saw the two siblings but with being gently influenced with Luffy's mind bending it didn't register with them that there were two people creeping past them.

However, things do not always go as planned. Sengoku noticed that there was an extra person on the platform, due to Observation Haki. When he turned to see who it was behind him and saw that one of Garp's grandchild was knelt behind the prisoner, busily unlocking the chains that tied the pirate down. He was shocked. He had thought that the threat of killing their sister would be enough to ensure that the two pirate brothers would obey the World Government but apparently he was wrong. His mind work furiously in the split seconds he had before he had to take action, and his mind came to one conclusion _'Luffy'. _She was a true genius her, in some aspects she had even surpassed him but he had one thing on his side that she didn't… experience. Seeing as her brother was currently freeing the pirate sentenced to death he could only assume that Luffy had asked him to and had planned to make her move during the battle when all other Marines were too preoccupied to keep an eye on her and her brothers.

However, before he could attack the brat the platform gave a shudder distracting him and when it collapsed it knocked him off his feet. When the dust settled enough for him to see, both the brat and the prisoner were gone. He cursed, and called himself ten kinds of fool for not predicting that this would happen. Garp's grandchildren were trouble makers to the very end. Left with the only option left he raised the alarm.

"Attention all Marines! The prisoner has escaped! He is accompanied by two pirates and a deserter. Kill them on sight!"

He regretted that the girl would have to die. She had so much talent and potential but she was too dangerous for him to let her live if she had turned traitor.

When the said pirates and traitor heard the shout they were already on the other side of the wall. If they had heard the shout then both the Whitebeard pirates and Marines had also heard him. Both sides were looking confused, and were looking around, though the pirates had small smiles after hearing that the commander had escaped.

Luffy's eyebrow twitched a millimetre, her own version of showing irritation. Her plan had barely started and already they had been discovered. She knew that there was a high possibility of this happening yet she had naively let herself hope that things would go smoothly. Their backs were against the wall (literally), and in front was a raging battle, they would have no choice but to make a dash to Whitebeard, using the fighting as a cover. She turned to Ace.

"Ace-nii I need you to carry me. I will need all of my concentration in order to keep the Marines off our backs. I can't afford being distracted by having to look where I run."

While Ace looked like someone had hit him round the face with a blunt object, Sabo couldn't help but snicker to himself. He knew _exactly_ what Luffy was doing. True she would need every bit of her power in order to help they make it through the battlefield, but it also ensured that their hot-headed sibling didn't do anything reckless like he usually did. If he was carrying Luffy he would be extra careful to make sure no harm came to their precious little sister.

Thatch who watched this short scene couldn't help but smile to himself, he had gotten to know the three siblings personalities a little during their regular meetings when they snuck into the dungeon: Ace was hot-headed and very protective of his siblings, Sabo was calmer and often had to calm Ace down, though he like his brother would do everything in his power to protect his family. Luffy however was somewhat of a mystery, since she never showed her emotions but Thatch had spent years with Marco who was similar in the fact that he was always calm and level-headed, though Thatch did have a talent of making Marco scream his lungs out with the various pranks that he played on his fellow crewmate on the Moby Dick. Luffy obviously cared deeply for her brothers and he could sense a Will of Iron behind her expressionless face, that she would use anyone and anything in order to protect her siblings.

Ace sighed in defeat and bent down so that Luffy could climb onto his back. They didn't have the time to argue so it was best that he just went along with what she told him to do. He stood up when she was settled and she wrapped her arms around his neck, once Luffy knew she was secure she closed her eyes and sent out a strong blast of Conqueror's Haki, knocking out several thousand Marines that were unfortunate enough to be in her target range.

"Now run!" She ordered. "Don't stop for anything or anyone. Head straight for Whitebeard."

The three men didn't need to be told twice, they set off at a dead sprint across the battle filled that was filled with bodies, though most of them were Marines thanks to Luffy's Haki. The unfortunate Marines weren't the only ones to notice the blast of Haki, the many of the commanders from Whitebeard's ship turned to see who it had originated from.

One of these was the First commander Marco who at the time had just finished trading blows with Admiral Kizaru when he had felt the blast of Haki. In his full phoenix he could make out three figures running across the battlefield, while the fourth was being carried. One of the figures was very familiar to Marco, and he was filled with happiness when he saw his brother running through both Marines and pirates. He didn't recognise the ones running with but then he had heard Sengoku's shout, they had helped his brother escape, added to the fact that one of them had a strong enough Conqueror's Haki to knock out several thousand Marines and he was starting to like them already.

He did notice something odd though. Whenever Marines tried to attack them their attacks missed or they would hit another Marine. It wasn't just the Marines around Thatch and his companions, but practically _all of_ the Marines on the battlefield. The war had taken a definite turn, the Shichibukai and Admirals were attacking Whitebeard pirates as normal, but lower level Marines, even Vice-Admirals were attacking their allies. He suspected that this strange turn of events was linked to one of the three brats that had Thatch to escape.

He swooped down to land in front of Thatch and his three companions, and returned to his human form so he could talk and find out what was going on. But Thatch beat him to saying anything.

"Hey Marco, long time no see. Lovely day for a war isn't it?"

Marco felt a vein pop in his forehead. Thatch did always mange get under his skin and drive him distraction.

"Oi, Thatch! Just what is-" He was stopped mid sentence when his brother raised his hand in a 'stop' sign.

"There's no time to explain and as much as I want to have a fun reunion after being locked up for several months I can't. Tell Oyaji to retreat now and to protect these brats, it's thanks to them that my head is still attached."

Marco turned and inspected the two boys who looked like pirates, when his eyes rested on the girl who was being carried, he felt his eyes widen. Her fringe and straw hat covered her eyes so he couldn't see what she looked but he did notice the small scar that was barely visible under her left eye. His inspection of the young Marine girl stopped when his eyes rested on her uniform before looking back at his brother.

"Even the Marine-yoi?"

The dark haired boy with freckles scowled, while the blonde looked at him sharply and held his metal staff more tightly.

"_Especially_ the Marine" Thatch replied looking into his brother and friends eyes, "It's because of her and her brothers that I was able to escape. I owe her a debt and I intend to protect her and her siblings. We need to leave _now_ before one of the admirals realise we're here."

Marco was surprised to hear that Thatch had already given his loyalty to these three brats. If they had helped his brother then they were allies of his as well. His gaze rested once again on the young Marine girl. She looked so fragile lying on her brothers back, as if she would break from simply being touched. He shook his head at the thought, her uniform showed that she was a high ranking officer and she would have to be tough to be able to get such a position.

"Don't worry you overgrown turkey" Thatch told him cheerfully, "With Sabo's ability", with this he jerked a thumb at the blonde brat, "we'll reach Oyaji before you do". With this the three ran past Marco towards the harbour where Whitebeard stood proudly on the deck.

Marco sighed and took flight, where he landed beside his captain and father-figure to report the new developments.

"Oyaji, I've got some news-yoi."

"What is it Marco?"

"Thatch has managed to escape and is making his way here. There are three brats with him who will need protection-yoi"

"Three brats?"

Marco nodded. "According to Thatch, they helped him escape. Three siblings. Two look like pirates the third is a Marine-yoi"

"Gurarara! Well that is interesting." Whitebeard raised his bisento **(his huge pole arm, a more massive version of the Japanese naginata) **and shouted out for the whole battlefield to hear. "All men retreat! We've gotten what we've come for! Protect your brother and the brats with him!"

All pirates on the battlefield acknowledged him with a cheer and started to retreat, ignoring the jeers from the Marines, claiming they were cowards for turning their back to the enemy. They didn't care, their brother and friend was free and if the brats with him had helped their brother then they were friends of their too.

One particular person who had heard Whitebeard was _not_ pleased. Admiral Akainu, hated all pirates and the thought of them escaping, especially one that had meant to die on the execution platform was unforgivable. His fellow admirals, Kizaru and Aokiji were absorbed in their own battles with Whitebeards commanders, which suited him just fine. It meant that we could wipe out the pirate scum with his own hands.

Looking down at the battlefield from his position on top of the wall he searched for a certain group of pirate scum among the masses that were running back to their ships with their tails between their legs.

'_There!'_ He thought. He had finally located them along with the traitorous bitch being carried on the back of one of her worthless brothers. His eyes narrowed to slits and he prepared to jump from the wall and eliminate them.

Thatch, Ace, Sabo and Luffy felt the blood thirst that was directed at them seconds before they were sent flying from the impact of Akainu's landing. The all jumped to their feet and Luffy's eyes had snapped open the moment she had felt the Admirals mind focus on them. Their bad situation had just gotten considerably worse.

Ace was standing with his knees slightly bent, prepared to either run or fight. Quickly glancing around her she saw Sabo and Thatch were in similar defensive stances. Akainu pulled his arm back and sent his magma fist forward with every intention of obliterating Luffy and Ace.

'_No!'_ She thought desperately.

"I won't let you touch my brother!" Luffy screamed at the Admiral and grabbed his mind with every ounce of power she had.

…

Ace stared for several moments trying to process what he was seeing. Admiral Akainu's magma fist was several inches away from his sister nose, from where he was holding he piggy-back style. Neither party moved but both had looks of absolute concentration on their faces, while looking into the eyes of the other. It was Luffy's quiet voice that broke him out of his stupor.

"Ace-nii, put me down very slowly." He complied with her order and felt his sister slide off his back to stand tall with the deadly fist of the Admiral still precariously close to her. He wanted nothing more than to snatch her away but he didn't dare move her for fear that it would make the incredibly dangerous situation worse.

"Sabo-nii, teleport Ace-nii and Thatch onto the deck of the Moby Dick. Don't try to move me or talk back since it's taking everything I have to keep Akainu at bay."

Sabo nodded, he knew she couldn't see him but he could hear the strain in her voice as she spoke. He was going out of his mind with fear seeing his baby sister mere inches away from certain death, but the last thing she needed was to be distracted. He grabbed his brother and Thatch and teleported them onto the deck of the ship behind them, where the two landed in an unceremonious heap. He reached out his hand to do the same to her when he was stopped when she continued speaking.

"_Don't_. If you want to help, then get as many pirates onto the ships as you can. I'll hold Akainu back as long as I'm able to. Now Go"

Sabo sprinted away tapping whoever he passed, those he touched disappeared and then re-appeared on the decks of the various ships in the harbour. He felt like shit abandoning his sister to face a strong enemy alone but he knew that he wouldn't be able to help her even if he stayed. So he helped in a way that only he could, getting Whitebeard pirates back to their ships so that they could sail away.

'_Please stay safe Luffy'_ Sabo thought desperately, _'Losing you would kill both of us. Don't you dare try to play the hero and abandon your brothers.'_

While this was happening Luffy and Akainu continued their staring match. Sweat was dripping down her forehead in the effort of holding a single Admiral in place. She had tried manipulating him into thinking she was harmless only to discover that Akainu's mind was full of stubborn, narrow-minded thought that originated from his hatred of pirates and his belief that everything he did was right. His mind was truly her worst enemy.

Internally she was starting to panic. She knew that she was wearing out fast and that in only a couple more minutes Akainu would break out of her control and kill her. However, they both Luffy and Akainu were broken out of their staring contest when a new voice rang across the battlefield.

"Zehahaha. Long time no see. Glad I could see you before you die…Oyaji!"

Blackbeard had made his presence known on the battlefield.

**The end of chapter 3. Hope you liked it. First time writing a battle scene so please have mercy on me. Chapter 4 will be out soon, I'm trying to do a chapter once a week, since I'm making such good progress. I'm aiming to write about 10, 000 words at least. Please review. I want to hear what you think.**


	4. The Price to Pay

**I'm pumping out chapters as fast as I can. Would have written this sooner but people kept distracting me, "**_**Gyaaah! Let me write in peace!**_**" ANYWAY thank you again for everything *bows* and please enjoy the chapter.**

**Chapter 4**

Luffy was shocked and by the look on the Admiral's face I front of her, she wasn't the only one. Marshal D. Teach, Shichibukai, traitor and possessor of the Dark Dark Fruit had announced his presence to the whole battlefield.

Akainu's eyes widened as he took in the scene in behind of him. The newly instated Shichibukai was surrounded by half a dozen or so people that he recognized as famous pirates that had been imprisoned in Level 6 of Impel Down. They were all criminals so villainous that their very existence had been erased from the records. The Giant Battleship, Sanjuan Wolf. The Corrupt King, Avalo Pizarro. The Great Drinker, Vasco Shot. The Cresent Moon Hunter, Catarina Devon, and finally the former Head Jailor of Impel Down, Shiliew of the Rain.

The Admiral ground his teeth together in irritation, _'More scum are coming out of the woodwork' _he thought angrily. _'As if things weren't annoying enough'_. He quickly glanced at the traitor in front of him, her was muted features showed several variations; surprise, irritation but underlying was a shadow of hatred. The admiral was torn as to which enemy to dispose of first, the weapon turn traitor in front of him or the more obvious enemy pirate behind hum, in front of the destroyed execution platform.

Luffy had known that Blackbeard would turn against the Marines during some point of the war but she was surprised to discover that not only had he broken out highly dangerous criminals out of Impel down but he had come to Marineford in the middle of the battle.

Letting the Whitebeard pirates escape, no longer mattered. Stopping Akainu no longer mattered. Staying alive for her brothers no longer mattered.

'_That man has to die!'_

So long as Blackbeard sailed the seas the balance that had been kept since Gold Roger's death would crumble and the sea that her brothers loved to sail on would no longer be safe for them. The conclusion had formed in her mind. She knew Ace and Sabo would resent her for what she was about to do but she no longer cared, she had sworn to them that she would give them back their freedom and she had meant it. Even if she had to die.

Luffy released her hold of Akainu and sent her mind into as many Marines as she could, stretching her Devil Fruit abilities to the very limit and beyond that. She ignored the flow of blood spilling out of her nose and eyes as she buried herself into the minds of the Admirals, Vice-Admirals, Rear-Amirals, Commanders, Captains and every Marine she could reach. She searched for their fear and hatred of pirates and directed it all at a Blackbeard. Luffy clutched her head, the pain was excruciating. Feeling all the emotions of the Marines, reading all their thoughts, she knew she had mere seconds, and screamed out a single order, burying it into every mind she held and sinking it into the depths of their consciousness.

"KILL BLACKBEARD!"

Luffy felt a cold darkness envelop her. Her head was in so much pain that she gladly welcomed it, not even knowing that she wore a smile as she fell to the ground.

…

Akainu looked at the traitor as she lay on the ground in a pool of her own blood. She was dead, killed by over-exerting her own power. He only regretted not killing her himself, he turned away from the body lying on the ground without a backward glance.

"Lie there and rot traitor," he muttered as he went to join his fellow soldiers as they attacked Blackbeard and his crew, "A weapon that is not used for justice doesn't deserve to exist."

He jumped up and punched his magma fist through one of former prisoners that Blackbeard had freed. He didn't care about her order to kill Blackbeard, all pirates were scum and needed to be eliminated. Marshal D. Teach was no exception to the rule of 'Absolute Justice'. Aokiji and Kizaru were attacking Blackbeard while the remaining Marines focused on eliminating his crew, who were trying to protect their captain in vain, due to the overwhelming number of enemies that they were surrounded by.

Akainu, joined the other two Admirals in their assault of Blackbeard. Though they were not directly affected by Luffy's last order, but because they agreed with it for their own reasons. To Akainu all pirates were vermin that need to be wiped out, even though he had trained Luffy when she was younger, he no longer cared. She had defected and thus was an enemy the 'Justiced' he followed and believed in. Kizaru, didn't really care about either the dead girl or Blackbeard. Marshal was a pirate, and even though he was one of the Shichibukai his true nature was shown through his betrayal. As for Aokiji, his thoughts were very different from his fellow Admirals. He had spent the most time with Luffy, in training her abilities in both Haki and her Devil Fruit abilities. As his mentors granddaughter he respected Luffy, for her own defined moral beliefs on what she felt was right and wrong under the banner of 'Justice'. He had liked spending time with her, when she first arrived because she was full of life like Garp but even when she had stopped showing her emotions, she still retained a sense of humour that was buried underneath the cold outer shell she showed to others. He regretted her death and the least he could do was carry out her the order she had given her life to pass on.

…

There was one person who had witnessed the whole series of events. Marco had been in the air when he saw Akainu attack the three siblings and Thatch. He had seen the Marine girl stop the attack just before it would have killed her and her brother. He saw both his and her brother disappear and reappear on the deck of the Moby Dick while her other sibling helped the remaining pirates to escape. He watched as the ship set off to escape while the Marines uselessly tried to stop them. During which neither the girl nor the Admiral moved a single inch. He heard Teach announce his presence but he didn't even spare his former crewmate a single glance since he didn't dare take his eyes off the two figures below him. His heart twisted painfully when he saw the girl clutch her head and it nearly stopped when as he watched her fall face forward to the ground in a pool of her own blood.

He swooped straight downward, plummeting towards the ground before braking at the last second to land at the side of the fallen Marine. His hands shook as ran his hand over her hair and back checking for injuries before stopping to look at her face for the first time. She was young, probably no older than eighteen since her face still held childish features. The scar under her left eye accented her long eyelashes. But it was the smile that she wore that shocked him the most, it was filled with happiness and relief. An expression like that was unheard of for a dead person and he could help but smile sadly as he gently ran his fingers over her cheek and over curved lips.

As gently as he could, he turned her over so that she was lying on her back, ignoring the sounds of battle that came from the Marines attacking Blackbeard. He didn't know what had killed this young girl but it was obvious she was dead, but out of habit he checked her pulse to confirm she was truly dead so he could give the sad news to her brothers.

_Th-Thump_

Marco's hand flinched away from the neck when they had been pressed against the jugular, his mind was a whirlwind of thoughts.

'_Alive? She's Alive!?'_

He quickly pressed his ear to her chest above her heart to confirm that his own mind wasn't playing tricks on him, since he had desperately wanted the girl by some miracle to still be breathing.

_Th-Thump. Th-thump_

It was extremely faint but there was a heartbeat. The young Marine girl still had enough left in her to fight to keep it. Without a moment's hesitation Marco transformed into his full phoenix form and quickly flew toward his ship with the girl held gently in his talons. She was someone who had helped save not only his brother but a great many of his nakama and he was going to be damned sure that she got all the help she needed in order to live. After a few moments of flying he noticed how light not to, mention thin, she was and shook his head in disgust. _'If - no when she wakes up, I'll get Thatch to make her a full meal at least three times a day. Those bastard Marines mustn't have been feeding her properly. No growing kid should be this light.'_

Marco flew faster, missing the cheers of victory coming from the Marines, from the battlefield that he had left behind.

…

Marco sat next to the bed in the infirmary that held the young marine girl, Luffy (he'd learnt her name only just recently). She was connected to numerous pieces of medical machinery which beeped in the background, he watched her face which was covered in an oxygen mask and counted her breathes as she slept. His eyes settled on the folded Marine coat that sat on the end of the bed with a straw hat that rested on top.

It had been a week since he had landed on the deck with the girl and his mind wondered back, thinking of the reactions of her crew and her brothers when he had seen her bloody and apparent '_dead_' body.

**Flashback**

Marco landed, setting down his package as gently as he could and cast his eye around the deck. Many of his sibling were bandaged but otherwise looked happy that they had managed to get Thatch back and escape from Marineford.

"LUFFY!"

The scream of a name, which he could only assume belonged to the girl he had carried, rang across the deck. Marco transformed back and picked the girl, Luffy, and held her bridal style in his arms. Thatch and Luffy's two brothers were running towards him, their eyes wide and fixed on the person he carried. The dark haired boy opened his mouth to speak but Marco cut him off before he could say anything.

"She's alive, but only barely. She needs immediate medical attention-yoi."

Both of the pirate brothers nodded at him mutely while Thatch watched him with a worried expression. All three followed Marco as he ran to the infirmary so that the nurses could have a look at the girl. He had been so impatient that he kicked in the door, which had earned him dirty looks from all of the nurses who were attending patients in the low beds. This changed when they saw the bloodied girl in his arms and Selma ran over and helped him place her gently in a spare bed. The two were of course followed by three worried pirates who had been behind Marco the whole time.

"What happened?" The Head nurse demanded.

Marco shook his head. "I don't know. All I saw was her going down. I couldn't see any obvious injuries but she has weak heartbeat-yoi"

Selma nodded and started barking out orders to her fellow nurses who assisted her in stripping the girl and fixing her to various pieces of medical equipment. She then turned to the four pirates watching her nervously.

"Alright, you aren't injured so get out. I'll let you know as soon as her condition is stable."

The two brothers started arguing with the nurse, insisting that they wanted to stay with their sister but their arguments dried in their throats when Selma gave them a death glare that even Oyaji obeyed when it was directed at him. She pointed imperviously at the door and the four grown pirates trudged out like children who had just received a scolding.

The two brothers immediately sat in the chairs outside the infirmary obviously intent on waiting until they had news on their sister. In was in the first few awkward moments of silence that Thatch roused himself enough to speak.

"Oh yeah, I didn't get a chance before but I might as introduce you all. Marco this is Fire Fist Ace and his brother the Blue Gentleman Sabo. You two brats meet _my_ brother and fellow commander Marco, the Phoenix. Also known as the Flaming Turkey or just Pineapple Head-OW!"

Thatch shouted out as Marco brought his fist down on his brother's head and rubbed it while grinning. "Mind the injuries, the nurses have just finished bandaging me up and Selma will castrate me if I get even more beaten up" Thatch gave a theatrical shudder to portray his feelings, while Marco glared at him for telling the two brats about his nicknames, both of which had been made by Thatch.

The two boys snorted when they had heard these nicknames and looked at him with speculative eyes.

"You know…" Sabo began "He's right. Your head _does_ look just like a pineapple."

Ace held back several snorts and with a grin turned to Sabo, "We've eaten quite a few animals when we were back home in the forest but I wonder what flaming turkey tastes like."

Both of the brothers stated snickering at the thought.

Marco was starting to feel both irritated and embarrassed by their teasing, he had known them barely five minutes and they had already ganged up with Thatch against him. He groaned just thinking that the two would probably join their crew since they had helped rescue Thatch and Oyaji was interested in them. Speaking of their captain Marco realised that he should probably report in soon when he was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard his brother speak.

"I'm sure our resident flaming turkey tastes great." He looked sidelong at Marco before continuing, "I'm head chef on the ship, and I could cook you up some nice flaming turkey steaks if you're hungry."

On cue the two brothers stomachs growled loudly and all three watched Marco with a predatory gleam in their eyes, which caused him to sweat.

"I'm going to report to Oyaji-yoi." Having said that Marco turned on his heel and walked towards the deck. He didn't care if he was being a coward, those three had talked about cooking him a bit too seriously for his liking.

…

Several hours later, Marco went back to the infirmary to check on how the three siblings were doing. The two brothers plus Thatch weren't outside like he had expected but inside sitting next to the girl's bed, one on each side holding her hands. Thatch stood up from where he had sat on the end of the bed to meet Marco.

"How's she doing-yoi?"

Thatch sighed and shook his. "The nurses have managed to bring back her heart by shocking her with electricity and stabilised her condition." He sighed again. "However, they have no idea what's wrong with her. They can tell it's a problem with her brain since the rest of her body doesn't have any injuries. Ace and Sabo are as confused as well are, the only thing that they can think of is that Luffy pushed her abilities too much and the backlash of it nearly killed her"

Marco was shocked, he'd never heard of something so severe for a devil fruit user over using their abilities. He looked at the girl on the bed before turning back to Thatch. "What are her abilities-yoi?"

Thatch took a step closer to Marco before whispering, "She can read and control the minds of her targets. You remember how odd the Marines acted on the battlefield, how none of them hit us?" Seeing Marco nod in confirmation Thatch continued, "That was _all_ her doing. She's got a seriously scary Devil Fruit and because of that she and her brothers were held hostage by the Marines."

Marco narrowed his eyes, thinking while looking at the three siblings. The attention of the two brothers was locked on their unconscious sister and they probably didn't even know he had arrived.

"Oyaji will have to know about this." He told Thatch in an equally low voice. "We can't afford her going berserk on the ship. She's too dangerous, but knowing Oyaji he'll probably want to recruit, not just her but all three of them-yoi." As he said this Marco's mouth curved in a smile. He didn't know the brats well but he, like their captain, wanted them to stay. He turned to the brothers.

"Alright you two, come on. We'll find somewhere for you to sleep. You need to rest and get something to eat since I bet you refused to. You're no good to anyone if you're too tired to move-yoi."

In the end the two young pirates had to be pinned down and drugged since they had refused to leave their sister's bed. Even though both were mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted it had taken Marco and Thatch as well as several nurses and a couple commanders who had been in the infirmary visiting men from their division to be able to pin the two down so that Selma could sedate them.

**End Flashback**

Now after a week Luffy remained unconscious and her brothers were wrecks. They barely slept and constantly by her side, they had reluctantly let Marco watch over her after Selma had ordered them out to get some sleep for the eighth time that week. The other commanders had introduced themselves to the two pirate brothers and stopped by the infirmary in order to have a look at the ones who had help their commander/brother/friend escape.

Marco absently ran the back of his fingers over her hand before snatching it away, when he realised what he was doing. He kept shocking himself by how much he touched this complete stranger. Over the past week Thatch had told him a lot about Luffy from the times she and her brothers had snuck into the dungeons to talk to him, and Marco was disturbed by how much he had wanted to hear about her. His unconscious need to touch her, plagued his mind. He wasn't one to readily touch and even in his siblings that were the Whitebeard crew he was hardly a person to give out hugs.

He sighed heavily and gazed at the girls face. Just what was it about her that called out to him. The women that usually appealed to him were busty, and mature. His mind refused to acknowledge that there was something about the eighteen year old that pulled on his heart. He was pulled out of his musings when he heard a faint groan from the bed and was shocked to see the pair of eyes belonging to the young marine flutter open to reveal a pair of dark luminous eyes that gazed at him to then take in her surroundings.

"Where…where am I?"

**Phew…my longest chapter so far. I'm really sorry for being mean and making you think that I had killed Luffy *bows* I hope you otherwise enjoyed it. It took me a while to sort out the series of events and how to write them, but otherwise it turned out okay. Please review I want to know what you think and thank you to the ones who have already, you guy are AMAZING!**


	5. Waking up to the Newspaper

**Hello and Happy New Year! I just occurred to me that some of you are probably wondering about my spelling and thinking **_**"This is misspelled"**_** for words like 'Humor/Humour'. It's not. I'm following the British version of English spelling which differs slightly from the American counterpart, which you are probably more familiar with, and I apologise if this has caused you any confusion *bows*. NOW on with the chapter!**

**Chapter 5**

**A Few Days Earlier – Marineford**

Garp slumped in his chair looking at the crumpled newspaper on his desk, he sighed and took a large gulp from his whiskey glass, ignoring the tears trickling down his face. His eyes read the title _'Marines Lose War, Whitebeard Commanded Alive While Shichibukai Blackbeard Dead'_. His eyes skimmed the article even though he had read it so many times that he had memorised the content and settled on a single sentence near the bottom of the page, _'Many lives were lost in the recent war, most notably was Rear Admiral Monkey D. Luffy, granddaughter of the Hero Garp the Fist, she was one of many Marines who died in the line of duty.'_ Next to the column was a small formal photo of Luffy in her Marine uniform staring at the camera with her usual cold expression.

Garp let out a weak chuckle, when he read this. His youngest grandchild was dead and it was his fault. No one but himself, the Admirals and Sengoku knew that she had betrayed them and such a fact was kept under tight wraps since it would damage their reputation, if the press found out that one of their own had helped the prisoner escape. However, he had seen the whole thing from next to the execution platform; all three of his grandchildren had made a break for freedom. While two had succeeded the third, who had stayed behind, had failed. Garp knew that the only reason that Sakazuki had left after Luffy had collapsed was that she was dead. The Admiral was the type of man who didn't stop hunting a pirate until they were dead.

Thinking of his granddaughter made the tears flow harder down Garp's face. He had known that Luffy was unhappy being a Marine, since she always dreamt as a child of being Pirate King. If only he'd kept his mouth shut, but he had been so _proud_ of her when she had managed to defeat the large ape that he had made her fight during the training session he'd put her through, when he had visited her. He cursed himself silently as he thought of her bright cheerful smile that had disappeared when she had become a Marine. He had tried to help train her in Haki and her Devil Fruit abilities but Sengoku had turned him away saying that his methods did more harm than good. Instead he cashed in a favour that his former student owed him, so that he would train his granddaughter instead and try to protect her from the politics that ran thickly in the Marine headquarters.

What Garp _truly_ regretted was that he never again saw Luffy's smile since the day she had been brought to Marineford, either with him or anyone else. Her brothers had been furious at him for putting them in such a mess and even more so when they say the effect that staying in Marineford had had on their little sister. They had demanded answers and had told them that he had wanted them to be Marines not pirates, even if it meant using whatever means possible. He hadn't meant the words which he had shouted at them in the middle of the shouted argument; he only wanted them to be safe, free from the names of their parents. If only he had swallowed his _damn pride_ and apologised, then his dear, sweet Luffy would still be alive.

Garp bent over his desks and his shoulders shook violently.

"Luffy. I'm so sorry." He finally managed to sob out.

…

Fleet Admiral Sengoku read the newspaper and with a disgusted snort gave it to the goat by his desk to shred.

He had lost his successor.

Monkey D. Luffy was one of the most intelligent people that he had ever met and it was hard to believe that she was indeed blood related to his friend Garp who was impulsive, out-spoken and idiotic. He sighed. The war had been a huge blow not only Marineford but to Impel Down and the World Government since one of their Shichibukai had not betrayed them but had broken out hundreds of highly dangerous criminals including the two former Shichibukai: 'Knight of the Sea' Jinbe and 'Desert King' Sir Crocodile.*

The Government had ordered the mass escape from Impel Down to be hushed up despite that the Marines had only managed to kill the prisoners that had joined Blackbeard's crew as well as Blackbeard himself. Sengoku sighed and looked down at the resignation letter on his desk, he had always been loyal to the World Government and never questioned orders from them. However, not only had he been ordered to cover-up the breakout but he had also been forbidden to pursue the hundreds of criminals that were now freely roaming the world.

He was furious at the order from the Government to suppress knowledge the mass escape incident in Level 6, it was most likely for them to save face and keep the faith of the people, thus placing nations in danger. Sengoku sighed again, and got up from behind his desk. He picked up his resignation letter and set off for the door of his office.

**Second Half of the Grand Line – New World**

Shank's hand shook violently as he read the paper. He didn't want to believe what he had read. _'Luffy was dead and she had been a Marine?'_ His first mate Benn looked at his captain worriedly. He and the rest of the crew had also read the article and were shocked to discover that their young friend had died in the recent war. Shanks ran his fingers over the small photo and his eyes soaked in every detail. Her hair had grown out from the short boyish look she had when he had met her as a kid, but the scar under her left was as prominent as it had been eleven years ago. Even to this day he remember when she had stabbed herself in the face to prove that she was as tough as any man, remembering Shanks couldn't stop his lips curling into a smile.

However, what disturbed him most about the photo was not the uniform the Luffy wore but her expression, or lack of. The girl, Shanks knew was always smiling and laughing and would never keep still long enough for a formal photo, that was shown in the newspaper, to be taken. Her eyes gazed coldly from the paper at the reader as if measuring him up for a coffin. Shanks shook his head and read the article for a fifth time but his mind couldn't process what he was reading.

The girl that he had thought of as a daughter was dead. Shanks held the paper held the paper over his face to hide his tears but his shaking shoulders showed Benn that his captain was crying. The rest of the crew also watched Shanks with worried expressions, since they had known how close Shanks and Luffy were and they didn't know how their captain would react to the news.

After a few moments Shanks took a deep breath to calm down and turned to his first mate. "Set course for Whitebeard. The Marines right now are too disorganised after the war to keep an eye out for two Yonko meeting up. I want to see how he is since he managed to get his commander back."

The crew ran about the deck changing the ship's direction and as Shanks watched them he felt his anger growing. He knew Luffy's Grandfather had wanted her to be a Marine and it seemed he had gotten his wish, and because of it Luffy was dead. Shanks swore to himself that if he ever saw the old man he would personally see to it that Garp's head would be delivered as an offering to Luffy's grave.

…

**Present – Moby Dick**

"Where… where am I?"

Marco looked at the girl looking at him from the bed before calling one of the nurses to check on her. She looked disoriented gazing around the sick bay but her gaze always returned to him.

"We're in the Infirmary on the Moby Dick-yoi."

She looked more confused, but when she tried to reply she started coughing drying, Marco accepted the glass of water from the nurse that had been checking the equipment and gently removed her oxygen mask. He put his hand behind her head and held the cups to her lips so that she could drink small sips of water, which he was glad she accepted since he was a pirate and she was Marine. When her throat didn't feel like sand paper Luffy tried talking again.

"What happened? Why am I here? Where are my brothers and Thatch?" She spoke in a soft croaky voice that was a result of not talking any using the oxygen mask for the past week.

Marco placed the glass on the bedside table puzzled, and thought carefully before answering, "What's the last thing you remember-yoi?"

Luffy frowned, trying to remember. "We were running across the battlefield… I was on Ace's back so that I could concentrate and make sure none of the Marines could injure us. Akainu came… then… Blackbeard showed up." Luffy paused a few moments desperately trying to remember the last few moments of when she had been conscious. "I think… I made all the Marines attack him. After that, everything is black."

"That's not surprising." Selma said, joining the conversation. She took the clipboard from the nurse and read through her notes before continuing, her eyes never leaving the girl's face. "You overused you Devil Fruit abilities. Your brain shut down in order to save itself and your body went into shock as a result. If you had gotten to us only minutes later you would be dead."

'_Selma was isn't a person to soften her words, even if they are a pirate, Marine or even Oyaji'_ Marco thought absently as he watched the Head Nurse and he couldn't help but flinch a little as she turned her direct gaze at him.

"Go wake her brothers and Thatch or all three be whining at me like little brats if we don't tell them immediately that the girl has woken up. While you're doing that I want to run a couple tests on her to see if there are any side effects from this brat being reckless. Oh, and tell Oyaji, while you're at it"

Marco quickly made his way out of the Infirmary and to the of the former second commander's cabin which had loaned out to the two brothers. He knocked as he entered the room, not caring to wait for their answer if they were awake, which was unlikely considering how exhausted they were. He was right, both pirates we sprawled across their beds snoring. Marco felt guilty about waking them since they both need their sleep but Selma was right. If they found out that their sister had woken up and they hadn't been immediately told, Marco had a feeling that the brothers could make their lives very difficult. With a chuckle he kicked them both causing them to fall unceremoniously out of bed with a thud, causing them to glare daggers at him while they rubbed bruised body parts.

Marco ignored the glares and smiled. "Your sister woke up-yoi."

He had barely finished the sentence when both dashed out the door to run headlong down the corridor to the infirmary. He then headed to the kitchen where Thatch would most likely be to give him the good news. Popping his head through the galley door he saw his brother chatting to several other commanders while he absently peeled potatoes into a large bowl, and called out to him.

"Oi Thatch, the Marine girl woke up-yoi!"

Thatch dropped his knife and potato to run up to Marco and barrage him with questions. "Is she okay? When did she wake up? Are there any problems? Does-"

Marco quickly cut him off when he saw that Thatch wasn't going to stop, "She woke up just now and you can go check on her yourself to get your answers." Thatch nodded and ran off to the Infirmary like the two siblings. Marco waved at when Vista, Haruta and Izo who had been sitting chatting to Thatch before making his way to Whitebeard's cabin.

He knocked on the door and waited for his captain to reply, when he heard of "Enter!" he opened the door and entered the cabin.

"What is it my son?" Whitebeard asked from his sitting position on his huge bed. He took a swig of sake from the bottle and grimaced as the various tubes he was attached to tugged at him.

"The Marine girl just woke up." Marco paused a moment, considering his words "Oyaji, what do you plan on doing with the three brats-yoi?"

Whitebeard hummed thoughtfully, during the war he had already made his decision but it seemed that it was time to things into action. "I plan on recruiting them. They helped Thatch escape as well as helping us to retreat. The two of the brats are pirates with large bounties on their heads, once the Marines get their acts together they'll chase them with everything they've got. The problem is the girl." Whitebeard learned over to the bedside table and handed the newspaper on it to Marco. "The paper says that she's dead but knowing Sengoku and Sakazuki they won't stop till she dead." He threw back his head and laughed. "Gurarara. They'll be great additions to the family, they care about each and risked their necks to save a stranger they knew nothing about. They're good honest brats who got caught up in the politics of the Marines."

Marco nodded and made his way to the door and paused, holding up the newspaper he still held, "Mind if I show this to the brats? They probably don't know what happened after the war since they were both focused solely on their sister-yoi."

Whitebeard nodded and after wishing his father figure good night, Marco made his way back to the infirmary, where was greeted with an amusing sight. All three of the people who had made their way to the infirmary after he had talked to them had large, steaming lumps on their heads and were sat on the floor looking like sulking children. Selma stood over them, holding up her clipboard threateningly while glaring daggers at the three supposedly grown men. She shot a final glare at Marco before storming off muttering to herself, where both nurses and patients wisely got out of her way. Luffy watched the entire scene chuckling quietly from where she was sat up propped up against pillows, with a small smile, before turning her attention onto Marco and giving him an awkward small bow from her sitting position.

"Good evening Mr. First Commander, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Marco couldn't help but shiver when he heard her voice. It was cold but there was an undertone from amusement which he guessed was from the scene he had missed with Selma. He smiled and pulled up a chair to sit next to her bed.

"Good evening. Let me introduce myself, I'm-"

"The flaming turkey!" Thatch, Ace and Sabo shouted in unison.

Luffy let out a snort before she could stop herself and tried to desperately hold in her laughter, but it was impossible to completely hide it. Her lips twitched erratically and her shoulders shook with silent laughter. The three who had interrupted had no such reservations and had burst out laughing as they watched Marco's face change from shock to embarrassment to anger. They laughed even louder when he failed to glare menacingly at them due to the pale blush that stained his cheeks.

Once the three troublemakers had calmed down they realised they the Luffy was studying Marco with a serious expression with her head cocked to one side, Sabo frowned and sat on her bed and waited for her talk.

"Sabo-nii, rather than a flaming turkey he resembles a pineapple more." To which her stomach gave a large rumble as she looked at Marco like he had a sticker on his forehead saying; 'Eat me!'

The three broke into uncontrolled laughter, Sabo was bent over double clutching his stomach on the bed while Ace and Thatch rolled around the floor banging the floor with their fists.

Marco jumped back instinctively when his survival instincts kicked in and glared at the three siblings. "What's with you three and trying to eat me!" He accused. His statement made them laugh even harder and even Luffy was laughing as well.

At the sound of their sister's laugher both of the brothers turned to look at her in wonder before pouncing on her to give Luffy bone crushing hugs.

"You laughed!" Ace cried excitedly planting a kiss on Luffy forehead

"It's been four years since we last saw you smile properly, never mind laugh!" Sabo held her head to his chest as his eyes glazed over in unshed tears. "How come you can laugh and you're not in any pain or losing control of your powers?"

Both of the commanders looked at each other with worried expressions, even Thatch who knew more about the three sibling's situation still couldn't believe that a young girl hadn't smiled properly in four years. Marco wasn't head in any better state; he had thought that the muted emotions that the girl displayed were because of her personality, level-headed like he was. Thatch had told him some details about the girl while she was unconscious but had mostly insisted on the siblings telling them themselves when they were ready.

Unaware of the commanders trading looks Luffy nodded to her brothers. "I talked it over with the nurse-lady before you three came barging in." She poked the large lumps on her brother's heads causing them to wince in both pain, remembering the Head Nurse's rage at the three pirates for barging into _her_ domain and causing a ruckus. "After talking to her we came to the conclusion that since I pushed my abilities so far beyond my limits, I can now express more emotion than I did before without it rebounding on me as harshly as it did. She also said that the way I had been trained was also a factor, since my emotions were quite literally beaten out of me the small amounts of emotion I did experience had more of an effect on me."

"So it's almost like building up immunity, so that over time you can show more of your emotions but not blank out like the time I dressed Ace in women's clothes when he was asleep and you passed out after a few seconds of laughing." Sabo put in, trying to work out the new development with their sister.

Luffy nodded with a small smile while Ace blushed and scowled at Sabo for bringing that incident up in front of others. It didn't help that Thatch had burst out laughing and Marco had a smirk on his lips.

Giving up he turned to Luffy. "So it'll be like when we kids? You'll be able laugh and cry again?" His tone was almost pleading as if begging for her to return to the way she had been, since it hurt him the most seeing the shell his sister had become.

The smile she gave him was wider and she answered with an amused tone "I won't be a cry-baby or stupid if that's what you're worried about. It may take months or maybe years but I will be able to fully express my emotions eventually. She said that the more I experience, the faster I'll get better and that I shouldn't be left alone since it will cause me to regress."

Ace was happier than he had been since he had surrendered to the Marines, and was embarrassed to feel tears prickling his eyes, to hide them he buried his face in Luffy's hair since Sabo had let her go. Letting her brother hold her a few moments she turned to Marco.

"Thank you for taking us in and giving us shelter. If you hadn't I would have died and for that I'm grateful." Her statement caused both her brothers to hug her. "Was there any particular reason you came to the infirmary or did you simply come by to check on me?"

Marco smiled at the three and he knew Oyaji had been correct. Judging by how clingy the two brothers were to here, when they had barely spoken to the rest of the crew he knew just how badly they needed their sister, and that the week she had been in a coma had given them a bad scare. If she had died Marco knew it would have broken them.

He held out the newspaper to her, "Thought you'd like to know what the world knows of the execution. The broadcast was cut off right after Sengoku announced Thatch had escaped-yoi."

Ace and Sabo sat on either side of Luffy as all three read the long newspaper article, after about ten minutes Luffy finally looked away with a tired sigh and leaned back onto her pillows. The results were better than she had expected. The Government had covered up the mass breakout and so her name and betrayal had been swept under the rug as well. It bought her and her brother's time they needed since many who had been on the battlefield saw her _'die'_ but she knew that once word got out that she was alive, Akainu would make it his personal mission to kill her. It was time to see whether he gamble that she had set into motion before the beginning of the war had paid off.

She opened her eyes and say Ace and Sabo were still reading while Thatch and Marco watch her with concern in their eyes.

"Do you know where my hat and coat are?"

Marco walked forward and picked up the folded coat with the straw hat on top and gave it to her. She gave him a small smile and picked the hat and ran her fingers over the familiar red band and rough straw and let out a relieved sigh.

"Thank you. This hat is my treasure and I would be devastated if I had lost it."

Marco rubbed the back of his head with a small blush and mumbled about not needing any thanks. Looking at the blushing man Luffy couldn't stop a blush coming up to her own cheeks. Confused she pressed her palms to her face to cool it down while looking down at the coat in her lap. Sabo who had watched the short scene, narrowed his eyes in suspicion. There was something going on between the two neither of them knew was happening and neither did he but he wasn't going to let it go any further. Luffy was his baby sister and no matter how old she may be he had no intention of letting a stranger enter, in some respects he was as bad as Ace in his over-protectiveness. The only difference was that he didn't show it as much, thinking back Sabo remembered how hard it had been to leave Luffy behind on Dawn Island when he and Ace had turned 17. He cursed himself wishing fervently that he hadn't, since if Luffy had travelled with one of them she could have avoided getting captured by the Marines. Looking at Ace he saw he was still absorbed with the newspaper article and grinned internally when he thought about how Ace would react when he found out _something_ was going on between Whitebeard's first division commander and their baby sister. Luffy's voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Sabo-nii, Ace-nii, I really sorry but could you check the pockets of my coat? My arms feel so heavy that I can barely move them."

They both nodded before picking up the coat that was surprisingly heavy and had strange lumps in the material. Marco and Thatch sat on chairs by the bed and leaned in closer, curious about what was happening. One by one Ace and Sabo delved into the pockets and took out the various objects stored inside. Once they had finished all the eyes that watched were as big as dinner plates as they looked at the items placed on the bottom of the bed after being removed from the coat pockets.

There were: Seven Devil Fruits, five apples, several packets of rice crackers and a large pocket watch had the Spade Pirates Jolly Roger on the front and Top Hat Pirates Jolly Roger on the back.

One of the Devil Fruits in particular caught Thatch's attention; it was dark purple with the usual swirling patterns on it. When he recognised it he jumped off the chair with a yell and pointed to the fruit with a look in his eyes that said he thought the fruit would come alive and eat him.

"That fruit! That's my-! What Teach-! Why do you-?! When did-!" Thatch gave up trying to form a coherent sentence and turned to Luffy with a wild look "Argh! How?!"

Luffy laughed after watching Thatch try to work out how she had the for Shichibukai's Devil Fruit, the expressions on her brothers and Marco's faces were just as hilarious,

"Shishishi." She leaned over and picked up an apple and bit into it, her smiled was bordering predatory as she finally turned to Marco. "Tomorrow if possible, I would like to talk to Whitebeard."

"What for?" He questioned her cautiously.

"So that I can make a deal with him." She took another bite from her apple and snuggled further into her pillow with a grin.

***Jinbe is in Impel Down for the same reasons as the canon, i.e. he disagreed with the Marines for stating a war with Whitebeard. As for Crocodile he was arrested by Smoker in Alabasta. I wanted him to break out of Impel Down since I might want him to come back and try to take Whitebeards head, not that he'd ever succeed but points to the man for trying.**

**So my dears, what do you think? I know Ace and Sabo are OCC but it is kind of justified since Luffy had been in a coma for over a week and when they first saw her they thought she was dead. I also wanted the fluffiness of how protective they are to show. The secret of the Devil Fruits will be revealed. PLEASE REVIEW. I'm also thinking of writing a one-shot with a Lucci x Luffy pairing. It'll be yaoi so I'm nervous since it'll be my first time writing a story with **_**those**_** scenes so please keep your eyes open for it. Thank you for everything, your reviews really help me keep going.**


	6. Serious Conversations

**Hello my Readers! Firstly I would like to say one thing *bows deeply* "I'm so sorry!" I had some work to do for my job which I've been putting off for weeks now and it finally caught up with me. Urgh… I hate website design! This added to the many distractions I had to deal with meant that my plan of publishing a chapter a weeks has **_**failed spectacularly. **_**Enough with me complaining and ON WITH THE CHAPTER!**

**Chapter 6**

Luffy finished changing in the Infirmary and looked down at herself. She wore her white suit with red and black striped shirt and was complete with a solid black tie, her Marine jacket had been thrown casually onto her now empty bed. _'Too formal'_ she thought, and promptly took off her suit coat and tied the sleeves round her waist to hold it there. She also rolled up the sleeves of her shirt until they were past her elbows, on a final thought she took off her tie and undid several buttons, once finished her re-assessed herself. Luffy might be about to talk to the most powerful man in the sea but she didn't want to look too much like her old Marine self. Whitebeard was a pirate and even if she was limited with her wardrobe she wanted to make a good impression which meant looking as informal as possible. Satisfied she placed her straw hat on her head and picked up her jacket which once again contained her Devil Fruits. As Luffy made her way to the Infirmary door she saw her brothers, Marco and Thatch were waiting for her.

"Ready?" she asked her two siblings, they both nodded mutely and they all turned to leave the Infirmary. After a few moments of walking to the deck Sabo turned to his younger sibling.

"Luffy, are you sure your feeling alright? You only woke up last night, you don't need to have this meeting right away"

Luffy shook her head, "I'm fine. My head is a little sore but that's about it. Also I need to talk to Whitebeard as soon as I could." She said and gave both her brother a direct look. "Sabo-nii, Ace-nii I need you to promise me that throughout this meeting you will be quiet and not interrupt. I'll need all my wits about me when dealing with the strongest man on the sea. Also this is a meeting between two captains, my first mate and navigator are _not_ to interfere." Luffy added with a smirk.

Their reactions were both immediate and comical. "What do you mean _you're_ captain? I'm the captain!" They shouted at her in unison.

Marco and Thatch stated to chuckle as they watch the two brothers argue at why they would never let their sister be their captain. Thatch was happy that Luffy was showing more personality than he had seen during their meetings in the dungeons under Marineford. Marco was also smiling, watching the three teasing each other reminded him of how he and his siblings interacted. Their arguing ended when they had reached the deck, all three siblings fell silent as Luffy went first and Sabo and Ace followed closely behind her.

Whitebeard was sitting on his throne-like chair on the deck, casually sipping on a huge bottle of sake, while all of the commanders, with the exception of the Fourth and First who had arrived with the three siblings, were present and were scattered about the deck. Luffy noted that there were very few lower level crew members present which confirmed her suspicion that not only did Whitebeard see her as dangerous but that this meeting was important enough to have all of his commanders present.

Luffy came to a stop before Whitebeard and waited for her brothers to settle in positions to her left and right. Once she was sure everyone was in position, she got to her knees, placed he palms before and bowed low so that her forehead touched the deck. Taking the cue from their sister Ace and Sabo bowed from their standing position behind her. Whitebeard and the commanders felt their eyes widen. A Marine _bowing_ to a pirate was unheard of.

Luffy rose from her low bow and settled into a formal seiza* sitting form, she had wore the cold, expressionless mask she had used for the four years she had been a Marine. Luffy hated having to become cold and unfeeling again but she knew she had little choice if she wanted this meeting to go in her favour.

"Thank you for taking us in and providing medical treatment when I needed it. It is thanks to this that I was able to live when I was at death's door and I am eternally in your debt."

Whitebeard watched the girl as she spoke in a cold voice. He had heard a lot about her from his son while she had been unconscious, and he couldn't help but smile internally as he saw her iron resolve in the way she spoke. _'This brat wants something that only I can give her. I can see why she was Sengoku's successor, her mind is sharp as a blade and she intends to convince me to give her what she wants. Very well brat, let's see what you want'._

Luffy read the thoughts in Whitebeards mind and cringed internally, he reminded her of Sengoku with how sharp minded he was. She was going to need every ace in the hole she had in order to win. The one thing Luffy took comfort in was the reassuring presences of her brothers beside her, and their faith that they had in her.

She turned to her jacket which she had put on the deck beside her and started removing the Devil Fruits in the pockets and lined them up in front of her. Finally she placed the former Shichibukai's, Blackbeard's fruit in front of the line.

The commanders were in shock and their eyes grew wider and wider as the girl lined up a total of six fruits in the deck in front of her. She had just shown them a fortune in Devil Fruits and even Whitebeard had raised his eyebrows in surprise as he saw the Marine girl place the items from her jacket pockets onto the deck. The commanders finally voiced her shock as she placed the final fruit in front of the neat line she had made. The only exceptions were Thatch and Marco since they had seen the fruits the night before.

"Firstly I would like to return the Dark Dark Fruit to your Fourth Commander, if was originally his before Blackbeard stole it and turned him into the Marines. It has no part of the deal I wish to make with you since I'm simply returning stolen property."

"Brat," Whitebeard spoke up, silencing the shouts from the startled commanders. "Why do you have that fruit?"

Luffy looked Whitebeard in the eye, "How familiar are you with the cycle of Devil Fruits?"

Whitebeard frowned at the simple question, "Devil Fruits take the form of a fruit until they are eaten. When the user dies they reappear somewhere in the world as a fruit again."

Luffy nodded. "That is correct, but not completely accurate. Over a hundred years ago the Government conducted a series of experiments to determine how far a Devil Fruit would travel when it replaced an already existing fruit. They murdered two hundred Devil Fruit users and came to the conclusion that 90% of fruits that left users when they died, replaced a fruit that was closest to them."

Luffy paused as she waited for the outraged cries from the division commanders to die down. Even her brothers looked shocked since she had never told them, this unknown fact about Devil Fruits.

"Brat, why do you know this?"

Luffy paused choosing her words carefully. "I made a point of finding out as many secrets that the Marines and Government had kept hidden while I was a hostage. Holding such information gives me an edge since if it was leaked, it would be a blow to their reputations and the faith people placed in them."

Whitebeard nodded in understanding. It made sense to make the most of an unfavourable position and from what the brat indicated she had gotten hold of a fair about of information that was harmful to the Government. He smiled at her cheek as he wondered if Sengoku ever realised that his successor had been searching for a way to destroy him.

"So what is it you want brat, that you're willing to exchange a fortune in Devil Fruits for?" The commanders tensed at Whitebeards question. This was the whole purpose of the meeting and why they had all gathered.

'_Here goes nothing'_ Luffy thought. "I would like you to take my brothers as part of your crew."

Luffy statement was met with several moments of silence, before several things happened. Whitebeard burst out laughing, Ace stumbled backward and fell over and Sabo turned his head to his sister so quickly that it caused his neck to cramp.

"Gurararara! How interesting so you want these brats of yours to join my crew?"

Luffy nodded again. "Yes, however should you refuse I will understand. We were held by the Marines for just over a year, there are more than enough reasons for you not to trust us. If so all I ask if for you to give us a ride to the first half of the Grandline, from there we will be able to track down my brothers old crew members. After that you'll never hear from us again."

Whitebeard was impressed. The girl had considered the option of him refusing and had prepared an alternative option to the deal she presented. He knew how badly Thatch had wanted her to join the crew and that the other commanders were grateful to the three after hearing that it was thanks to them that Thatch was alive. What he found most amusing was that he had planned to recruit them as soon as the girl was well enough to leave the Infirmary. The fact that she had beaten him to it by striking a deal with him made him want them in his crew even more.

Luffy was distracted from her focus on Whitebeard, by the blazing thoughts of the commanders, but mostly from the fierce thoughts from her siblings. Both were sat cross legged on either of her sides glaring. They might not voice their protests because they had promised her, but they knew that if they thought about it loud enough Luffy would hear them clearly. They were furious since she had for obvious reasons, not told them about any of the details that she wanted to talk to Whitebeard about. She was brought out of the silent shouting rants directed at her when she heard the Captains booming voice.

"I noticed that you only wanted your brothers to join, why didn't you include yourself in the bargain?"

"My brothers from the beginning were pirates, it is obvious that they should be returned to the world of piracy. Under your flag they will have the protection they need from the Marines who will want to kill them. I however, was a Marine, and a Rear Admiral. I was never a pirate and so the rules of piracy do not apply to me. Deal or no deal you are under no obligation to take me on as part of your crew, furthermore the world thinks that I'm dead. Once word gets out that I am actually alive not only will you have entirety of the Marines aiming for you but the World Government as well. I intend to either live a quiet life or to join the Revolutionaries."

Thatch was shocked. The fact that Luffy was prepared to face the world alone was unacceptable to him. After she had saved him, he had sworn to himself him that he would keep her alive and safe. As much as he wanted Ace and Sabo to join the crew he knew it was meaningless if they didn't have their sister with them, since he suspected that both the brothers would go out of their minds worrying about her. Marco was also worried, he knew that if things went as the Marine girl wanted them she would be on the run for the rest of her life, constantly worrying about who would betray her next. Such as life was something he would not let a child live, especially when she had chosen it of her own free will despite being given an option of being safe with them.

"Gurara. Cheeky brat, you know you'll never be able to live a quiet life. You'll be chased from the moment you leave this ship till the day you die."

"What of it? It's no concern of yours what I do." Luffy paused, probing Whitebeards mind, she knew that she couldn't control his mind, since like the Marine Admirals he was too strong for her and she knew she had to be even more careful now. The cards had been laid on the table but there was one that both of them knew that Luffy hadn't put down yet. Her Devil Fruit abilities. "You and I both know that I'm too dangerous to have on your crew." Her gaze flickered to Thatch, "How much do you know about my _abilities_?"

"My son gave me the basic outline of what your fruit can do, he also said it was the reason you were taken hostage."

"So you see my point in that I'm too much of a threat to keep on your ship."

Whitebeard threw back his head and laughed loud and deeply. "Gurararara! I'd hate to see you die kid. If you still want to live and fight in this world then take my name and roam the seas wild and free!" Whitebeard knelt in front of Luffy and her brothers and held out his hand to them. "Become my children!"

All three of the siblings looked at the pirate captain in shock. Luffy masked shattered as she felt her eye widen and she was sure that every emotion she felt was written on her face.

Luffy's throat locked and she barely managed to whisper out a single word. "Why?"

Whitebeard chucked at the looks of confusion and shock on the three brats faces, "I told you didn't I? You've been my child the moment you set foot on this ship, brat."

Luffy stared up at the huge man before cracking up and burst into hysterical laughter. Ace and Sabo crawled over to her side where she rolled round clutching her side laughing as if she had gone insane. The brothers exchanged worried looks and they weren't the only ones, Marco and Thatch looked at each other both wondering what had caused such a reaction after she had been so composed throughout the meeting.

Luffy lay on her back and pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes. "As expected from the most powerful man on the seas. Hours of preparations and hundreds of simulated conversations, all blown away with a single statement. Incredible! I'm absolutely no match for you!"

Tears ran from her eyes under her palms to fall onto the deck. Luffy was no longer laughing and her throat had once again locked up. When she did manage to speak it was choked, filled with tears and emotion that revealed just how much what Whitebeard had meant to the former Marine.

"Thank you."

Whitebeard chuckled as he saw the girl break down and started to cry openly. Her brothers picked her up till she was in a sitting position and hugged her.

Still hugging their crying sister Ace and Sabo turned to Whitebeard. "Thank you." Sabo said quietly, he knew the captain heard him while Ace just nodded his eyes locked on the huge man.

Smiling Whitebeard sat back down in his throne and saw his sons and daughters greet the new members of their family. Marco and Thatch sat down with the three siblings immediately, when their captain had returned to his chair and watched with amusement as two twenty-one year old men trying to calm down a crying eighteen year old girl.

The problem was finally solved when Ace lost his temper and punched his sister in head. "Stop crying! You know I hate cry-babies!"

Luffy immediately stopped crying, pulling her lips in a tight line and clutched her head where a large bump had started to form.

"Now, now Ace, there's no need to get mad." Sabo made calming gesture trying to be the peacemaker between his two dark-haired siblings. "You know that this has been stressful for Luffy, she just relived that we can be together and safe."

Luffy looked at her blonde brother before diving into his lap and wrapped her arms tightly around him. From her position she glared at Ace, "Sabo is a much nicer brother than Ace." She then buried her head in her brother's shoulder and tightened her hug. With a smile Sabo returned the hug before smirking at his brother, who was currently looked both embarrassed and angry at his two siblings.

"So, welcome to the family-yoi." Marco smirked, watching the three.

Thatch placed his hand on Ace's shoulder with a smirk of his own, "If you want to get revenge on them I have the perfect prank in mind."

This caused Ace to give Thatch an evil grin and the two sat with their head bent over while Sabo threw the two worried glances. Not wanting to be left out the other commanders eagerly introduced themselves, and Sabo was forced to do the talking for all three of them since Ace was busy plotting with Thatch and Luffy had fallen asleep on his lap.

The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed and both the brothers were enjoying themselves, they had expected the other commanders to be tense since they were outsiders and Luffy had made it clear that her Devil Fruit was dangerous. Not only that but one of their crewmates who had been with them for years had betrayed them only a few short months ago. Apparently they trusted their captain's decision and it was clear that they fellow commanders of the first and fourth division trusted them as well.

Ace and Sabo had been tense throughout the meeting, they knew that they could trust Luffy and her decisions but they still had been shocked and angry when she had revealed that she had wanted only the two of them to be safe by joining the Yonko's crew. The week that luffy had been in a coma had been hell for both of them, even though they had sailed out separately and built up crews all three siblings had secrets that they had shared with no-one but each other. The fact that Ace's father had been the previous Pirate King, that Sabo's parents were nobles and had helped kill hundreds at the old home in East Blue and that Luffy's father was a Revolutionary and the most wanted criminal alive. Luffy trusted Whitebeard and they trusted Luffy's decisions without question, but some secrets were best kept secret until they knew they could completely trust the crew which they had just become a part of.

The conversation eventually turned to the Devil Fruits that were still lined up on the deck. "So…" Marco asked turning to Thatch, "What are you going to do about your Devil Fruit-yoi?"

Thatch looked at Marco with a horrified expression. "I don't care so long as I never see the thing again!"

The other commanders laughed and turned to the brothers "That is a good point." Izo said. "Oyaji accepted you so there was no need to take them, they're still technically yours. Though Thatch's fruit will have to be kept for safe-keeping since it's too dangerous to be sold and Thatch certainly doesn't want to eat it."

Ace and Sabo looked at each other in confusion, they hadn't considered Whitebeard not taking the fruits as exchange for them joining the crew. "Truthfully I don't really care." Sabo said after a few moments. "It might be useful to keep one to sell off, since we have no money but thinking about it, the fruits belong to Luffy. We'll have to wait for her to wake up so that we can ask her about it.

The conversation ended when they heard a shout coming from the crow's nest.

"Oyaji, there's a ship approaching!"

"Who is it?" Whitebeard called back. "Pirate or Marine?"

"It's a pirate ship!" The caller paused for a few moments for they assumed the caller was trying to identify the incoming ship.

"It's the Yonko, Red-Hair!"

The two brothers looked at each other in confusion, both having the same thoughts, _'What on earth is Shanks doing here?'_

*** An upright kneeling position which is traditionally used in Japan **

**Chapter END! Phew… I finally finished. Sorry for taking so long and ending it on a cliff-hanger. There's no romance for Marco and Luffy in this chapter since the talk with Whitebeard was too important but there will be sparks flying soon. Please look forward to the next chapter where Shanks will be meeting Whitebeard. That should be **_**fun**_**! PLEASE REVIEW!**


	7. Rekindled Fire

**Wow, it's been nearly 2 weeks since my last chapter updates… sorry about that, but I've finally had enough time to write the much awaited chapter 7. Thank you for your patience and for the wonderful reviews, they made me **_**so happy**_**!**

**Chapter 7**

Shanks stood at the front of his ship, The Red Force, as it approached the Moby Dick. His weathered skin was pale and he had dark bags under his eyes. Ever since he had read that Luffy had died he hadn't been able to get any sleep and had barely touched any alcohol. He hoped that visiting Whitebeard and seeing that his commander was safe would ease his guilt and regrets of the young girl he had thought of as a daughter. His mind was plagued with questions as to why the young girl who had sworn to him to become Pirate King had instead become a Marine. Despite his sorrow, he knew that he wasn't the only one, since Luffy was much loved and that her death would be deeply mourned.

He had ordered one of the men in the crow's nest to signal to the approaching ship that they weren't there for a fight but to talk, since Shanks knew Whitebeard would be on edge since it had just been over a week since he had fought in the war. Once the two ships were side by side, Shanks grabbed the huge bottle of sake lying on his ship's deck and made his way slowly up the gangplank. Shanks, released a blast of Haki, since he was technically boarding an enemy ship and he didn't want to be attacked. Benn, his first mate walked behind him. Shanks knew that Benn wanted to make sure that nothing happened and that his first mate was worried about him since he hadn't been himself since he had read the news about Luffy.

As they slowly made their way to Whitebeard's throne the weaker minded men dropped to the deck unconscious while the commanders and other stronger members watched his progress. He finally stopped in front of Whitebeard's throne.

"Excuse me. I had to be a little threatening since it's an enemy ship." Shanks offered a half smile at his fellow Yonko. He held up the bottle which he had dragged behind, "I've brought some good sake; I've got no intention of fighting. I simply came to see how you and your fourth commander are. After all you managed to get back the person you went to war for."

Whitebeard looked down at the red haired man, "Is that all that the man who came here and shows his Haki say?" he had noted the younger mans pale skin and tired eyes and wondered what had happened, to man such a energetic man look so tired. His gaze quickly flickered to the first mate and noted that he also looked tired but not the same extent as the red haired Yonko.

Marco was worried, the last time that Shanks had met with his captain had been shortly after Teach had betrayed them and the resulting conversation had split the sky when the two Yonko had clashed. He didn't want a repeat of the incident, raising his voice he called out, "Oi! Red Hair! Bastard, look at what you did! Hold back with your Haki-yoi!"

Shanks turned and gave the first commander a tired smile, which shocked Marco. Usually the Yonko would laugh and make a joke but the man looked like a shadow of his former self. Unnoticed by the other crew members Ace and Sabo had watched as Shanks had made his way across the deck and exchanged looks. Sabo disentangled his sleeping sister from his lap and the two brothers made their way to the front of the Whitebeard pirates cautiously watching t visiting Yonko. Their movements caught Shanks attention and his mouth fell open as he saw Luffy's two brothers amongst the Whitebeard's crew.

"Ace, Sabo! What are you guys doing here!"

All eyes on deck looked at the two young pirates who both looked embarrassed at being the centre of attention. The two brothers made their way to the side of the two captains with Marco and Thatch close behind them. Sabo gave a low bow to the red haired captain while Ace just offered half a cocky smirk.

Sabo rose from his bow and smiled "Long time no see, Shanks."

Shanks smiled at the two young pirates, "You've grown from the last time I saw you two. How many years has it been, two, three years?"

"It's been two years." Ace interjected, he turned to the first mate and gave a nod of recognition, "You both look like shit though."

Shanks sighed while Sabo elbowed his brother in the stomach and gave him a reprimanding glare. The rest of the Whitebeard pirates were shocked that their newest siblings were on such good terms with the visiting Yonko. Marco eyed the two brothers with interest at the newest development while Thatch stared boggle eyed at the two teens.

"Brat," Whitebeard spoke for the first time since the two brothers had interrupted the conversation, "How do you two know Red Hair?"

Ace and Sabo looked and each other. Ace shrugged indication that Sabo should do the explaining. "Shanks saved our little sister's life when she was a child. When Ace and I set off to be pirates we tracked him down so that we could thank him."

Whitebeard raised his eyebrows at the latest piece of news about his youngest children and was surprised to hear that the former Marine had such a connection to his fellow Yonko.

"Wait a minute!" Thatch interrupted, "Weren't the three of you from East Blue? What was Red Hair doing there, I never heard him leaving the Grand Line?"

Shanks chuckled and rubbed the back of his hair in embarrassment, "It was a holiday of sorts. I decided to travel the four Blues as a breather from the Grand Line, I met Luffy when we docked at the port where her village was." The humour left Shank's face, as he turned back to the two brothers, sadness was evident in every line of his body. "I'm sorry to hear about your sister. I thought of Luffy as my daughter and I know I'll sorely miss her but I know that the ones hit hardest by her death are you two." To the shock of everyone on the deck, Shanks bow to the two brothers, "I'm sorry that I couldn't be there when she needed me the most." Straightening Whitebeard saw tears glistening in the corner of the Yonko's eyes. Benn placed his hand on his captain's shoulder, silently offering him whatever comfort he could.

Ace and Sabo meanwhile were both shocked and embarrassed at Shanks' display and neither of them knew just _how_ to tell the captain that Luffy was _not only_ alive and well but sleeping only a few metres away from them. Looking at each other, they had a silent argument about what they should do. It consisted mainly of glances, glares and muted movements, all of which was watched with amusement by Whitebeard, Marco and Thatch, since they were closest. They could only assume that Ace had lost the silent argument when he made his way back to where they had been sitting before and gently picked up their sister, bridal style. Luffy gave a sleepy grumble at being moved and wrapped her arms around Ace's neck and buried her head into his shoulder, which made all those who were watching smile, the exception being a red haired captain and his first mate who were facing each other talking quietly.

Ace carried his sister back to the two captains and looked at Sabo jerking his head at the Yonko. With an exasperated smile Sabo tapped the man on the shoulder, when Shanks turned to the blonde man with a confused look Sabo simply pointed to the girl in Ace's arms.

Shanks followed where the blonde's hand was pointing and stared at the young girl in the dark haired sibling's arms. He blinked once. Then twice. And again a third time before letting out a yelp and jumped back. The jump caused him to stumble and fall over, with a shaking hand pointed to the girl. "L-Lu-Lu-Luffy!"

Benn was just as shocked as his captain but his way of expressing it was less dramatic. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates and he took several steps back to take in the scene before him. The girl, he and the entire crew had thought was dead was happily asleep being held in her brothers arms. Both of her brothers looked both embarrassed and amused at his captain actions. Watching Shanks, Whitebeard burst out laughing and the other commanders had smiles on their faces. Ace and Sabo sat down next to Shanks and Benn, and Marco and Thatch took the cue from them and sat down as well.

Shanks crawled over from where he had fallen over to start poking and prodding the girl, as if to make sure that she was real and not an illusion. He finally stopped when he pulled Luffy's cheek causing her groan and sleepily swat away his hand.

Shanks finally turned with a glare to Whitebeard, "Why is Luffy here, Whitebeard?!" he yelled, "Why are these siblings on your ship?!" Haki rolled off Shanks in furious waves, causing the boards of the deck below him to splinter.

"The girl's here because I brought her-yoi." Marco interrupted the Yonko before he could carry on shouting at his captain. "If I hadn't she really _would_ be dead like the paper says she is-yoi."

The Haki coming from Shanks stopped immediately after he heard Marco's words and he looked from Whitebeard to his commander to the two brothers. "Tell me what happened." He demanded, it was said quietly but every word was loaded with power.

Sabo decided to take over with the explanations since he knew that Ace's version would be too abbreviated to really explain why they were on Whitebeard's ship. He turned to the Yonko, "Shanks, you know about Luffy's Devil Fruit don't you? She said you were there when she ate it."

Shanks mealy nodded in confirmation while the commanders on other crew members looked at each other in confusion. Her Devil Fruit abilities had come up in the earlier meeting but none of them except Thatch and Oyaji knew what it was, and they all had the feeling that it had given the girl more trouble than it was worth.

"Our whole problem originates from that fruit." Sabo continued. "Ace and I set off as pirates when we were seventeen and Luffy was fourteen. A few months later our grandfather revealed Luffy's abilities and the Marines came and threatened her that if she didn't go with them they would destroy Fuusha Village."

A wave of Haki came from Shanks at Sabo words, he didn't seem to be conscious of it but his eyes had a murderous glint, "So your grandfather got his wish that his granddaughter would become a Marine even if she was being blackmailed into it." He snarled out, he looked at the peacefully sleeping girl "That man is as good as dead the next time I see him."

Ace smirked, "When you do let us know and we'll lend you a hand. We hate the shitty old geezer as much as you do."

Marco looked between the two parties with a confused look on his face, "Just who is your grandfather?" he asked "If he's a Marine, surely he would protest if his own granddaughter was being blackmailed." Several of the other commanders nodded, agreeing with what Marco had said.

"It's Garp." Shanks spat out

Marco blinked several times before the Yonko's words set in causing him to choke on his own spit. He was not the only one, the entire Whitebeard crew had similar reactions. Shouting out their shock to hear that Garp 'The Fist's' grandchildren were in front of them. Whitebeard raised his eyebrows in surprise, but remained silent since he didn't wish to interrupt the brat's story.

Sabo waited for the shocked crew to die down before continuing, "About a year ago Ace and I received a letter telling us to surrender to the Marines, if we didn't they would kill our sister. Needless to say we handed ourselves in without a fight. After that we waited, looking for an opportunity to escape." Sabo gestured to Thatch, "When Luffy heard of Whitebeard's fourth commander being captured she devised a plan that would use his execution to our advantage and let both us and Thatch to escape. However, things got complicated once we actually released Thatch and were on our way to the Moby Dick. Akainu spotted us and in order to hold him off Luffy sent us on ahead." Sabo sighed deeply, "I don't know what happened after that, I sent Ace and Thatch onto the deck of the Moby Dick and then concentrated on helping the surviving pirates get back to their ships. When I next saw Luffy she was being carried by Marco and was barely alive. Until last night she was in a coma."

All eyes turned to Marco; they all wanted to know what had happened. The commander held up his hands in a confused gesture, "Your guess is as good as mine. I saw her facing off against Akainu when she collapsed. It was when she woke up that we found out that she nearly killed herself by overusing her Devil Fruit abilities-yoi." Marco's gaze went down to the sleeping girl and his expression softened, "There should be limit to how reckless you can be-yoi."

His statement caused Shanks to laugh, "Dahahaha! Anchor's has always been reckless, even when she was a kid." He pointed to the scar under her left eye, "When she was _seven_ she stabbed herself to prove she was as tough as a man, even though she was a cry-baby."

Shanks's revelation causing many of the listening members to raise their eyebrows in shock, and when Benn, Shanks' first mate nodded in confirmation as to what his captain had said was true, many face palmed. All wondering just what kind of person had joined their crew.

Ace and Sabo however were confused. "Anchor?" Ace asked

Shanks grinned and nodded, "Yeah well, since she was a horrible swimmer and just sank, I decided to call her Anchor. When she accidently ate the Devil Fruit that my crew had taken in our latest raid, it just added to the fact that she was a hammer in-"

The Yonko's sentence was cut off when a murderous aura came from the two brothers, "Wait a second." Ace said "You mean to tell me that it _your_ fault that Luffy ate a Devil Fruit?" The glare he gave the older man made even repudiated Yonko sweat nervously.

"Wait…wait a minute! It's not my fault that Anchor ate the fruit." He stammered, "How was I supposed to know that she would eat fruit the in the chest, even if it _was_ unlocked."

Sabo gave Shanks a very polite smile but the look in his eyes was even more murderous than Aces, "Did you really expect Luffy _not_ to eat any food you had carelessly left lying around?" Thatch sweat dropped at the blonde's question, by the sound of it the girl was a bottomless pit as well. The kitchen had suffered heavily after trying to fill the bottomless stomachs of the two brothers. Thatch shook his head '_What a family of monsters_' he thought.

Shanks was saved from the brothers wrath by a sleepy complaint from the subject of their argument. "Shut up." Luffy grumbled, "You're too noisy."

Ace and Sabo turned from Shanks with a final glare before murmuring apologies to their sister. Shanks however, once again crawled over to Luffy and started pulling her cheek, ignoring the glares directed at him.

"Come on Anchor, rise and shine..."

"Don't wanna."

"Chibi…"*

"Not a chibi."

"Anchor!"

"Stop calling me Anchor, stupid Shanks."

The bystanders watched with amusement at the exchange of how the red haired captain was failing to wake up the sleepy teen. With a devilish smile Shanks put his mouth right next to Luffy's ear and shouted "Meat!"

Luffy response was instantaneous, her eyes snapped open and she bolted upright and looked around wildly for the proclaimed 'meat'. Seeing that there wasn't any Luffy grumbled and rubbed the sleep from her eyes when they finally settled on the man ginning in front of her. She blinked at Shanks several times and looked at him blankly. Shanks stated to get nervous at her lack of response as she continued to stare at him.

Without warning Luffy cocked her fist back and punched the man in the jaw sending him flying into the other side of the deck. The crew stared with open mouths and eyes the size of dinner plates as the small girl sent a Yonko flying with a single punch. Whitebeard, Ace and Sabo however, burst out laughing as they watched Luffy yawn and look around her in confusion.

"Ace-nii, Sabo-nii why did I just hear Shanks' voice just now?" she asked yawning again

Her brothers snorted in amusement since it appeared that their sister had hit Shanks as she would have done as a child when he annoyed her. The only difference was that now she was an adult her punches packed a lot more power than they had eleven years ago.

"That's because you did." Benn answered her chuckling

Luffy turned to the first mate and her eyes widened in surprise, "Benn! When did you get here?"

He laughed at her confusion, "We got here a while ago while you were asleep, the only reason you're awake is because the captain kept annoying you." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder to where Shanks sat amongst broken planks and dusk rubbing his chin with an amused look.

"Damn it Anchor." He said as he got up and made his back over to the group, "Rather than you punch being as strong as a pistol it's more like a canon." With a grin he sat back down and saw that Luffy was staring with a look of shock and happiness. "Hey there chibi, how've you been?"

Luffy launched herself at the man with a happy cry, causing him to fall onto his back as he laughed at her reaction. Luffy wrapped her arms around Shank's back and buried her face into his chest, giving him a tight hug which he happily returned with his single arm. The hug was broken however, when Luffy hissed in pain and held her head in one of her hands, which made those around look at her in concern.

"I guess I was a bit too happy for a moment." She explained with a smile, "My emotions are still unused to being used so much in such a short amount of time." The Whitebeard pirates and her brothers nodded in understanding while Shanks still look confused. "Backlash from over using my Devil Fruit." she explained to Shanks who accepted her answer with a smile.

Luffy cocked her head to the side as she look at her role model that she was still hugging, "Shanks, what are you doing on Whitebeard's ship?"

Shanks threw back his head and laughed, "Dahaha, you're asking this _now_, after you sent me flying with a punch?"

Luffy pouted, "It's you own fault for calling me Anchor. So why are you here?" She stared at his face from where she was lying on his chest, "And why do you look so bad?"

Shanks smiled up at her and raised his hand to ruffle her hair, "I came to see Whitebeard since the war has just ended and I wanted to see how he was doing." The man sighed deeply before continuing, "As to why I looked so bad, is because I thought my adoptive daughter was dead for the past week."

Luffy looked guilty for causing the man who was both her role-model and father-figure to worry. "Sorry." She muttered as she once again buried her face into his chest.

Marco watched the two and couldn't stop the stab of jealously in his chest. He had been fine watching as her brothers her, but seeing the girl lie on the Yonko while hugging him made the jealously hurt more. He was brought out of his dark thoughts when he heard a shout from the red haired captain.

"Oi, Whitebeard we need to have a feast! You got your son back and I got my daughter back! What more reason do we need to celebrate?!"

Whitebeard looked down at the Yonko who had managed to sit up but Luffy remained in his lap. "Alright brat. Bring out the sake! We're having a feast!"

His shout was answered with the cheers from his sons and daughters as they ran to grab food and booze from the kitchens.

…

The party was in full swing and both the Whitebeard and the Red Hair pirates were happy chatting, eating and drinking as they absently watch the two Yonko argue good naturedly about which crew Luffy should join since both insisted that she was '_their_' daughter. The argument promptly ended when Luffy told Shanks that she wouldn't join his crew, since if she did that would drive each other, (and the rest of his crew) insane until Benn murdered them both. This caused Shanks to pout in a childish way and only brightened up when Whitebeard told him (while smirking) that he could come visit '_his_' daughter when he wanted to.

Luffy weaved her way through the crew members partying on the deck. She wouldn't admit it but her condition was worse than what she had told Sabo. Her head was killing her, and she was so tired that her limbs felt like they were made lead, thus making her search out for a quiet place among the chaos of the party so she could sleep. She finally found one by the first commander who sat a little way back from the crowd in a rare spot of quiet. Luffy made a beeline for him and plopped down next to him with a sigh of relief.

Marco was shocked my Luffy sat down next to him without any warning. He opened his mouth to ask her why she was sitting next to him but his mouth died up when she laid her head in his lap, wrapped her arms around his waist and promptly fell asleep. He felt his cheeks flare up in a heated blush and a high pitched yelp escaped his lips. '_What does she think she's doing_?' he thought at the sleeping girl furiously, he knew he was blushing and shook his head furiously in order to cool it off. '_I'm acting like a teenage girl towards the guy she likes. There's no way someone my age should be reacting like this!_' Unfortunately for Marco his yelp had caught the attention of his crewmates who couldn't help but laugh when they caught sight of his predicament.

Their laughing caused the two captains and Luffy's brothers to turn his way. The two Yonko laughed while her brothers glared and made stalked their way over. When they reached him they glared daggers at him which made the supposedly 'immortal' phoenix seriously think that his life was about to end.

"What do you think you're doing to our little sister, you damn perverted old man!" Ace demanded hotly

Sabo grabbed Luffy and attempted to pull her off the commander but only succeeded in making her grip his waist tighter and bury her head into his lower stomach, and much to Marco's horror and embarrassment, dangerously close to his crotch.

"Hey, Marco!" Thatch called over "Rather than a pineapple you look more like a tomato right now!" The party goers laughed while Marco's face turned a deeper read as he tried to pry the teen off his lap.

"I'd give up if I were you." Shanks told the brothers as he made his way over to them, "You know how clingy Anchor is when she's asleep. When she grabs hold of something she doesn't let it go until she wakes up." An amused smirk was on his face as he squatted down and put his hand on Marco's shoulder. "I will tell you, that if you do anything _improper_ to her I _will_ throw you into the sea."

"There's no way we're going to let that happen." Sabo told Shanks fiercely and teleported Luffy off Marco's lap and into his own arms. He turned back to the crowd and bowed, "With that we wish you good night." And both he and Ace made their way back to their cabin.

Marco watched as the three siblings left while the crowd booed saying that they had taken away their entertainment. He looked down at his cooling lap and he couldn't help but absently wish that Luffy had lain there for longer.

When the siblings reached their cabin Ace tied their two beds together and Sabo placed Luffy in the centre. The two brothers lay on either side of her side as they pulled their blankets over themselves and their sister. Both had large smiles on their faces as they fell asleep, this was the first time in four years that the three sibling had slept together knowing that they were free and safe.

…

Luffy woke up to warmth and the muted minds of her brothers next to her. A smile broke out on her face since it had been a long time since she had felt so safe and secure. Slowly, so as not to wake her brothers she got up and winced when her long hair got trapped under one of her arms. Luffy gave her hair a dull glare and nodded to herself as she came to a conclusion.

She snuck out of the room and spread her mind out, wanting to find out where the crew was after the party. Luffy couldn't stop a small wince since her head was still sore, but it wasn't as bad as it had been yesterday. It seemed like the majority of the crew had fallen asleep on the deck and the only ones awake were the look-outs, the cooks and a few nurses. With a smile she made her was down to the Infirmary, since she had wanted to ask a favour of the women who ruled there.

When she opened the door to the empty Infirmary a couple of the nurses looked up curiously wondering who had come to visit them at such an early hour. Selma, the Head Nurse made her way up to Luffy and stopped in front of her and crossed her arms.

"What is it? If it's a check-up, then it's too early in the morning for one."

Luffy gave and awkward smile, unsure of how to ask her favour, holding up a lock of her hair she looked at the nurse, "I was wondering if you could cut my hair. It's getting too long and I don't really know who else I can ask."

Selma snorted "If that was all you should have said so earlier." Her gaze travelled over Luffy crumpled suit, "We can get you some clothes while we're at it, after all you are now part of Oyaji's crew."

Luffy smiled as the nurses bustled around her asking how short she wanted her hair while others went searching for women's clothes that she could try on. Thinking Luffy recalled the length of the twelfth commander's, Haruta's, hair which was the same length that hers had been when she was a child. The nurses tittered at Luffy telling her it was a waste to cut such 'pretty long hair' but they still cut it how she had asked. By the time Luffy's hair had been cut and she had her new clothes she could feel Shanks and his crew preparing to leave.

Luffy looked at herself in one of the mirrors on the Infirmary wall. She wore an open red cardigan with flared sleeves and black bikini top. Mid-thigh shorts hugged her figure while a yellow sash secured it around her waist. She wore black leather sandals that laced up to her knee and had small heal that made then good for fighting in. Finally Luffy looked at her face. Her hair was as short it had been when she had met Shanks, Sabo and Ace and made her look younger. With a smile she placed her straw hat on her head and thanked the nurses for the kindness before making her way up onto the deck.

The pirates from both crews stopped what they were doing to stare at her as she made her way across the deck towards Shanks. The long haired Marine who they had initially met had been replaced with a tom-boy pirate girl who looked at home strolling across the deck of a pirate ship. For Luffy, the best reaction came from her brothers who stared at her with wide eyes and open mouths, the only ones who didn't seem shocked were Shanks and Whitebeard who both seemed to have knowing grins. Luffy came to a stop in front of Shanks who was standing by the gangplank connecting the two ships and gave him a cheeky grin which he returned.

"Looking good kid." He said and gave her a one-armed hug

Smiling Luffy took off her hat and held it to her chest and looked him straight in the eyes, "Shanks, eleven years ago I made you a promise that I would gather my own crew that would beat yours, and find the world's treasures. Even though I took a long detour from this promise I can tell you once again that no matter what I will become the Pirate King!"

Shanks smiled down at the girl, and remembered the shouted promise the day he had left Fuusha Village. He had no doubts that his adoptive daughter would overtake him and claim the title that his former captain had held. "Oh, when do you plan on doing that?"

"In a year's time, when I'm nineteen." Luffy answered. She turned to Whitebeard who was sitting in his throne watching the scene. "Whitebeard, even though I have joined your crew will you allow me to form my own crew and join in the battle to find One Piece?"

Whitebeard smiled, even though the girl asked as a question he knew that there was no room for argument and even if he _did_ say no, she would carry out what she planned anyway. "Brat, even if you form your own crew and sail on a different ship you will still be my daughter. Go and follow your dreams, and know that in a year's time when you do leave that Whitebeard will always be your ally."

Luffy bowed to Whitebeard, to show her thanks and turned back to Shanks who had a wide grin. Taking the hat that Luffy still held to her chest he placed it on her head again, as he had done eleven years ago. "Then continue to hold onto his hat, and someday when you become a great pirate come and return it to me."

Turning, Shanks walked down the gangplank and shouted for his men to set sail. Luffy watch as Shanks' ship set off with misty eyes and a smile as she waved to her the man who was so many things to her. A father figure, a role model, an idol and finally a goal. When the ship was out of sight Luffy turned to her two brothers who were behind her.

"So you gonna stick around with me for the next year?" She asked with a wide grin.

The grins she received in reply even wider than hers.

*** Midget**

**Longest…chapter…EVER! Phew, I thought it would never end. Seriously this is like over 5,000 words! There was so much excitement for this chapter that I wanted to do a good job of it, since everyone was looking forward to Shanks' visit. Thank you again for all the reviews, they give me sooo much encouragement.**

**A bit of shameless self advertisement here: Please check out my other story 'Sweet Dreams', it's a Lucci x Luffy yaoi story and please give it a read. I will also be releasing a 3****rd**** fanfic 'Three of a Kind' shortly (I've written a couple paragraphs already). It'll be a modern AU where ASL meet the Whitebeards. So please keep your eyes open.**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**


	8. Battle Makes the Blood Sing

**Firstly…I'm so sorry! *bows* It's been exactly two weeks since my last update. This is the longest I've gone without releasing the next chapter…then again I did write two chapters for 'The Cheshire Cat's Smile' during that time. But no, that is not an excuse. Very well, with my apologises out of the way let us begin the chapter.**

**Chapter 8**

Luffy sat on the rail of the Moby Dick as she watched the Whitebeard pirates and her brothers sparring against each other. It had been several days since she had woken up and Luffy knew that she had completely recovered from her near-death experience. Her brothers however, disagreed with Luffy and had refused to let her spar with anyone, saying that the nurses had ordered her at least a week of complete rest before she did anything 'strenuous', like sparring.

As much as Luffy loved her brothers she hated being babied by them, even though it was rare when they did. Ace was the type of brother who was an overprotective bully, while Sabo was the nice and understanding brother. What Luffy hadn't told her brothers was that she had cut back on using her Devil Fruit abilities, after she had had her meeting with Whitebeard. Sitting on the railing, Luffy absently watched the sparring pairs while contemplated the abilities of her Devil Fruit.

Personal boundaries were a vague area for Luffy, when she had been a Marine, reading minds had been a matter of survival but outside of that, Luffy considered it rude to simple read minds of those around her. Luffy had already made the decision not to read the minds of the Whitebeard pirates, since she felt that it would be intrusive. Instead Luffy used Observation Haki which let pick up basic intentions of those around her, thus not straying past her self-made moral boundaries. With a rueful smile, Luffy knew that the main reason she had cut back with her abilities was that she wanted to be spared the headaches of reading the minds of over a thousand noisy pirates that were on the Moby dick.

Luffy taking part in sparring was not the only thing that she and her siblings had argued about. Luffy's change in clothes had been a hot topic between them, since both Ace and Sabo had said that she was revealing too much. It had turned into a shouting match when the issue of the black bikini top came up, since Ace insisted she changed it for a proper shirt and Luffy shouted back that her breasts were small enough that she could wear the top and her chest wouldn't get in the way of her fighting. By the end of the argument and Sabo's intervention Luffy still wore the bikini top but kept her red cardigan buttoned shut with only a couple of the top buttons open.

With an irritated sigh Luffy looked down at her chest, her breasts were barely a handful and from what she had gathered from listening from the Marines in Marineford, men liked shapely women with big breasts. Why Ace had over-reacted about her clothes was beyond her comprehension since Luffy couldn't see why anyone would be interested in her. With another irritated sigh she went back to watching the sparring pairs on the deck.

The Whitebeard pirates had wanted to know just how skilled the two pirate brothers were, thus inviting them to join in with their morning workout. Thatch was exchanging blows with his swords while Sabo parried with his staff, both of them were skilled and were trying to disarm the other. Ace and Marco were paired up since both were fire users, Ace kept throwing fireballs at Marco, which the phoenix just absorbed with a flash of blue flames. After about half an hour of sparring with the two brothers, Thatch and Marco could understand that their high bounties weren't for show and that both would be good additions to the family.

When the four pirates decided to take a break they went over to the railing where Luffy was sitting on. Both Ace and Sabo sat down and leaned against the railing with a relieved sigh, sparring with the two commanders had been more of a workout than either of them had thought it would be. Thatch also sat down, he was out of shape after being in the Marineford dungeons for months and his body hadn't fully healed. Marco watched the three with an amused smile and noticed that Luffy was glaring dully at her two brothers. It was obvious that the girl had wanted to take part and burn off the excess energy she had, and Marco took pity on the former Marine.

"Hey Luffy, you up for doing a bit of sparring against me-yoi? You're brother didn't manage to make me work up a sweat-yoi."

Luffy looked up at him with a brilliant smile, and Ace and Sabo glared at him.

"Wait a minute!" Ace argued "The nurses said that Luffy should be doing anything strenuous for a week. She still has several more days where she should be resting."

Marco looked down at Ace and cocked an eyebrow, "It won't be strenuous-yoi. It'll just be enough to burn off some energy and let your sister do something rather than giving you death glares-yoi."

Ace turned his head round and did indeed notice that Luffy was giving him a glare that would have killed him several times over.

Sabo placed a calming hand on Ace's shoulder, "Ace, you know what Luffy's like. We used to spar every day since we were kids and you haven't let her do anything for several days now. Let her exercise a bit, we'll be here to see that she doesn't over do it."

Sabo's words caused Luffy to jump onto his back and give her brother a grateful hug. "Thank you Sabo-nii!" Luffy cried happily as she pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Ace sighed and finally conceded Sabo had a point, "Okay, you can spar, but if the nurses catch wind of this, I giving you and the overgrown chicken, to Selma."

Hearing her brother's treat Luffy just laughed and pressed a kiss to his forehead, missing that the blood in Marco's face had completely drained away, leaving him a sickly white. Like all Whitebeard pirates he feared the Head nurse's rage and the threat alone was enough to encourage him to hold back.

Walking off to where his crew mates continued sparring he waited for Luffy to catch up with him. Once Luffy stood directly in front of him they both took fighting stances.

"Soru." Luffy disappeared from in front of Marco to reappear behind him, aiming at his head with a high kick. Marco's eyes widened in surprise but blocked the kick with his arm. With the other he swung round aiming at the girl's stomach, but his stance was thrown off balance when Luffy's other leg managed to kick him in the knee.

The two fighters jumped back a few metres, once again facing off from each other. Marco had a new respect for the former Marine, he had known that she had been a Rear Admiral but he could tell from the weight of the blows she had landed that she was strong. Marco knew that if he held back, that she would take it as an insult.

The fight between the two had caught the attention of the crew on the deck who had halted their own fights in order to watch the commander and their newest member spar against each other. Not to miss out on the fun, Thatch promptly started a betting pool to see who the victor of the fight would be and by how much.

Both Luffy and Marco were unaware of their surroundings since they were solely focused on each other. Marco dashed forward and kicked at Luffy aiming for her shoulder, she narrowly avoided the kicked by punching the incoming leg which sent both of the fighters flying back several metres, due to the shock wave. Before Luffy had time to recover Marco punched the girl in the stomach sending her straight into the air. The blow was enough to slightly wind Luffy, using _Geppou* _she kicked off the air under the mast and sent herself rocketing back towards the deck. Bringing her leg up above her head she brought it down to connect with Marco's crossed arms, which he had used to guard himself from the blow.

What neitherof the two noticed was that they were both grinning, both enjoying exchanging blows. Luffy was having fun, it had been too long since she had faced an opponent who made her blood sing. With this kind of fighting there wasn't any time to think of unnecessary things, and the sheer joy of fight made her laugh out loud. Marco heard Luffy's laughed and his smile widened in response, the sparring session might have more serious than he had originally intended but it had been a long time since he had enjoyed a simple fight as much as this one.

Both Marco and Luffy dashed forward and punched at the same time, their fists connected and the resulting shockwave sent Luffy flying backwards until she crashed into the deck next to Whitebeard's throne. The captain looked down at his youngest daughter from where he was sitting, enjoying the fight when he heard her clear laugh. Luffy pushed the rubble off her as her face was split into the widest grins he had ever seen. The former Marine was panting slightly as she crouched down on all fours on the deck. Whitebeard noticed the predatory glint in the girl's eyes and he knew that the sparring session/turned full fight was far from over.

Luffy's arms and feet turned black showing that she had activated Armament Haki, she looked at Marco and her grin became even wider, "Level Two. Link Cut."

Marco blinked, the figure of the girl who was crouched on the other end of the deck had disappeared. Before the commander had time to question where his opponent was, an incredible force struck him in the stomach, and he was sent flying into the side of the ship. Dazed and winded in the pile of broken planks and splinters Marco looked at the place he had been standing only a second ago and saw Luffy with her legs braced and her head down. Her fist was stretched out before her pointing at him and Marco could only assume that her single punch had sent him into the railing of the Moby Dick.

The fight abruptly ended with the shouts of Luffy's brothers as they ran to where she stood.

"Luffy stop!" yelled Ace

"That's enough Luffy!" shouted Sabo.

Luffy straightened, and turned to face her irate siblings with a sheepish grin. In unison Ace and Sabo punched the girl on the head causing her to curl up in a ball while griping the steaming lumps on her head.

"What were you thinking Luffy? Using that technique damages your own body!" Sabo yelled down at his sister

Ace's yells were only a beat behind his brother's "You idiot! You nearly _died_ and have been out of bed for a few days! Why the hell were you seriously fighting?!"

All three siblings were unaware of the incredulous looks that the crew was giving them. Even Whitebeard was surprised that the young girl had been able to land such a successful punch on one of his sons. '_If the brat had stayed with the Marines then she would have been a powerful enemy. She truly is Garp's granddaughter_.' He thought as he watched the two brothers berate their sister.

"I was having fun." Luffy whined

Luffy's words made a vein pop in Ace's temple and he smacked his sister on the head, giving her a third lump, "I don't care if you were having fun! Never use that technique outside a serious fight!"

Sabo was about to add his opinion when all three heard the wheezing from Marco who had been helped up by Thatch.

"What the hell was that-yoi?" Marco wheezed out as he made his way over to the three siblings, he did stop to throw Thatch a dirty look after he had noticed a lot of Beri changing hands among the spectators to their fight and Thatch's smug grin. Marco could guess that his brother had been laying bets on his match.

The three siblings looked sheepish before Luffy decided to speak up, "The humans can only use 30% of the body's potential. It's one of the brain's safety measures so that we don't damage ourselves. Using my Devil Fruit I can cut off the safety switches in my brain, such as feeling pain or temperature. I can even make my body heal itself faster than normal if I get injured." Luffy took a deep breath before carrying on with her explanation, "What I hit you just now was 'Level Two, Link Cut', it allows me to use 60% of my body's potential, the downside is that if I use it for too long or go to 'Level Three' I would end up ripping my muscles and seriously damaging myself."

Marco stared down at the teen in shock, "Why did you use such a dangerous technique-yoi?"

Luffy cocked her head to one side and looked up at the commander with a confused expression, "It's fun fighting someone strong. I wanted to see just how strong I was against one of Whitebeard's commanders. Isn't it normal to want to fight seriously against an opponent who you know is stronger, even if it's just a practice match?"

Marco and the rest of the commanders and crew stared in shock at the young teen, they had gotten an inkling of just how reckless the girl was when Red Haired Shanks had visited but it was only truly dawning on them about just _how_ _reckless_ she was. Even if they could somewhat see her point.

Hearing their sister's reply Ace and Sabo sank down to sit on the deck with exasperated sighs.

"We must have raised her badly." Sabo moaned out, as one of his hands covered his eyes, "We must have done _something_ wrong, that or she could have inherited the old geezer's stupidity."

"Nah…" disagreed Ace, "I say the shitty old man hit her over the head too many times when we were growing up."

Both brothers sighed again in unison. Watching them Luffy chuckled and lay back on the deck, her arms and legs spread out.

"Shishishi… That was fun!" and promptly fell asleep.

…

When Luffy came to she was aware that she was moving, after opening her eyes she became aware that she was being carried on someone's back. Her eyes roamed the back where head was laid across until they came to the mass of spiky blond hair. With a startled yelp Luffy leant back away from Marco who was carrying her, making him to stumble and loose his balance, causing both of them to fall over in the corridor below deck.

Before Luffy had woken up, Marco had been slowly making his way to the Infirmary so that the two of them could be looked at by the nurses. It was his punishment to face the Head Nurse's wrath after going too far when fighting and Ace had told him; "It's your own damn fault if the witch in the Infirmary castrates you. Now go take Luffy to get a check-up and don't come back until you've been neutered."

As Marco had carried Luffy piggy-back style to the infirmary, he had concluded that his true punishment was the feeling of Luffy's breasts pressed against his back and the tickling sensation across the back of his neck as she breathed. It hadn't helped that Thatch's chuckles had followed as he had made his way across the deck carrying the sleeping girl, since he was sure that his face was one solid blush. Marco had been so caught up in his thoughts that when Luffy had suddenly woken up and leaned back he had been taken completely by surprise. And much to his horror and embarrassment he found himself on all fours directly above Luffy, as both of them stared at each with startled expressions.

Luffy stared up into Marco's eyes and she felt her own face begin to heat up, apart from her brothers she had never really been in close proximity to any men and she wasn't sure what to do in her current situation. Being embarrassed was a new feeling for Luffy since she had never been in any situations where she was embarrassed, either with her brothers of at Marineford.

"I'm blushing, aren't I?" Luffy asked in the calmest voice she could managed

Marco could only nod mutely as he watched the girl underneath him press her palms to her cheeks in order to cool her face down. The commander felt that he had been hit by some sort of freeze beam that prevented him from moving away from where he was above the girl, it was as if his mind had stopped functioning and Marco felt himself slowly lower his head until his lips gently pressed against Luffy's.

Both parties were completely red in the face as Marco brought his head back, while Marco stared at Luffy in surprise at his own actions and Luffy looked anywhere _but_ at Marco's face.

"I-I-I need to get up." Luffy stammered

Marco once again nodded and crawled back until he was in a sitting position. Luffy lifted herself up until she sat across from Marco, her mind a complete mess about what had just happened.

Luffy repeatedly glanced at Marco before she had the courage to talk, "Um…well…what am I meant to do in this sort of situation?" she stammered out.

Marco blinked at Luffy owlishly "W-what do you mean-yoi?" '_Why am I also stammering?_'

Luffy look at Marco, her eyes pleading, "I don't know what to do. I've never been around anyone who acted towards me in such a way."

"No-one-yoi?" he asked

Luffy nodded in confirmation her eyes never leaving Marco's face.

Marco's eyes widened in shock, to say he was surprised was an understatement. Luffy was to him, undeniably cute, even when she had been cold when he had first met her there had been an air around the former Marine that drew you towards her. To hear that no-one had made a move on her was surprising, though Marco reasoned that her brothers were very protective of their sister. Which might be the cause in Luffy' lack of suitors.

Luffy could sense Marco's confusion and shock with her Observation Haki, "Ace-nii and Sabo-nii were the only kids my own age in the village I grew up in. when I was in Marineford I was always surrounded by old men and because of my cold attitude none of the Marines would talk to me more than they had to. I'm aware of people having romantic feelings, but I've never had any directed at me." Luffy turned from Marco and he barely caught the last line of what she said. "I don't know how to love someone who isn't my family."

Marco smiled softly at the girl who was staring at the floor, "You know, I think I'm in love with you-yoi." The commander's statement made Luffy look at him in shock and the blush on her cheeks to spread to the tips of her ears. Looking at Luffy Marco smiled ruefully and rubbed the back of his head, "This is probably the first time I've felt this way about someone. You're a kid who's years younger than me and I don't want to hurt you, by selfishly push my feeling onto you-yoi."

Luffy cocked her head to the side, "You do know that I'll be setting off to start my own crew in a year's time?" she asked

Marco smiled at the girl, "I guess that mean's I've got a year to show you how to love someone in a romantic way, and I fully intend to make you fall for me-yoi."

Luffy smiled shyly in return and held out her closed fist with her little finger sticking out, "Then it's a promise. You have one year in order to make me fall in love with you."

Marco raised an eyebrow at the former Marines actions and wording but linked his own little finger with Luffy's with a wide smile.

"Promise-yoi." He answered

The moment was entirely ruined however, when the two heard whispers coming from one of the closed doors from where they were sat in the corridor. Without saying anything Marco got up and quietly made his way over to the door and quickly pulled it open. From behind it Thatch, Izo, Haruta, Vista, Ace and Sabo spilled out.

It appeared that the six of them had been eavesdropping from behind the door, though two of the six had been gagged and restrained. Luffy raised her eyebrows, when she saw that Thatch had his hand over Ace's mouth while Vista covered Sabo's. Both of her brothers looked murderous while Thatch looked like a cat that had just been at a jar of the finest cream. What all the new arrival had in common was that they all were looking at the First division commander with a lot of interest, which caused the man in question who sweat heavily.

As soon as Thatch loosened his grip of Ace the young pirate flew at Marco with murder in his eyes. Sabo had also managed to wriggle free of Vista's grip and joined his brother in chasing Marco who had escaped onto the deck.

Grinning madly, Thatch ran after the three singing at the top of his lungs, "Marco's got a girlfriend! Marco's got a girlfriend!"

The remaining pirates watched as the retreating backs of their brothers, all wearing amused smirks.

"How many times do you want to bet that Ace keeps trying to kill Marco by the end of the week?" Izo asked his companions with a raised eyebrow.

Behind them they heard a groan, "It's going to be a long week…" Luffy muttered.

***Moon Walk used by CP9**

**Finished! I'm really sorry for the delay, but things have been pretty crazy. I will give a warning that I'll be starting my new job in a couple of days so I'll probably be updating my stories every two weeks from now on….sorry *bows***

**Thank you for all your support, and please don't forget to review. **


End file.
